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Tag: NJC

  • NBA to report corrupt, lazy judges to NJC, says Alegeh

    NBA to report corrupt, lazy judges to NJC, says Alegeh

    •NDIC to review Act

    The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has set up a committee to monitor the judges and report corrupt and lazy ones to the National Judicial Council (NJC).

    The committee will liaise with local NBA branches through which lawyers can submit their complaints where they have evidence that a judge has been compromised, has delivered a judgment that has no basis in law, or exhibit laziness by sitting late, among others.

    NBA President Augustine Alegeh (SAN) yesterday said the association would send a formal petition to the NJC after reviewing the complaint or questionable judgment.

    He spoke yesterday at a sensitisation seminar organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for its external solicitors, with the theme: “Challenges to Deposit Insurance Law and Practice in Nigeria.”

    Alegeh said besides corruption, the greatest challenge facing justice delivery is ignorance of the law by some judges, some of whom he said belonged to the old school and give judgments according to their beliefs rather than according to law.

    “For the first time, the Bar will be sending petitions to the NJC directly against judges. If any lawyer has a judgment, delivered for or against him and they feel it is not according to law, let them send it to us. Such judges should not be in our judiciary,” Alegeh said

    NDIC’s Managing Director, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, said the NDIC Act, which was last amended in 2006 would be reviewed to further protect depositors.

    Ibrahim, represented by NDIC’s Executive Director, Operations Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, said: “Presently we are proposing new amendments to the Act. One area we are looking at is strengthening the protection of depositors. We want to shorten the time-span within which depositors get paid if a bank should fail. We also want banks to be more responsible generally.

    “NDIC has a very critical role to play, but to achieve this, there are a set of prescriptions which have been laid down by the International Association of Deposit Insurers. We want to amend the Act to bring it in line with international best practices.”

    According to him, depositors of many of the failed banks have been paid in full, while some shareholders and creditors have also received their monies.

    “There are several instances where payments are advertised and individuals fail to show up to collect their payments. We have those isolated cases.

    “We can distinguish the case of Savannah Bank from failed banks because it is not within the control of NDIC. Their licenses were revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but on court orders, the licenses were reinstated.

    “The next step would have been for the owners of those banks to reorganise themselves and come back into operations so that depositors can access their accounts. Savannah Bank has been unable to do that,” Erediauwa said.

  • NJC penalised 64 judges in five years, says CJN

    NJC penalised 64 judges in five years, says CJN

    Sixty-four of the nation’s 1020 judges have been penalised for unethical conduct within the last five years, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, said yesterday.

    The CJN said the measure was intended to rid the bench of bad eggs. He regretted that while the Judiciary was doing its best to eliminate its few bad eggs, the larger society was doing less to curb corruption.

    Justice Mohammed spoke in Abuja yesterday at a conference with the theme: “The fight against corruption: The way forward,” organised by the Anti-corruption Commission of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).

    “While the Judiciary has been in the spotlight of public scrutiny, we continue to take active steps towards sanitising the Bench. Where petitions are received in respect of Judicial officers, they are promptly investigated via internal procedures put in place by the National Judicial Council and where culpable, such officers are disciplined in accordance with established procedures.

    “Under my tenure as the chairman of the National Judicial Council, we have not shirked this responsibility but faced it head on. Between 2009 and 2014 of the 1020 Judges in the superior courts, over 64 Judges were disciplined as appropriate by the NJC and some of them are no more within our ranks.

    “It is, however, sad to note that public officials and persons, who benefit from corrupting judicial officers, are never investigated, apprehended or even prosecuted, even though the judiciary disciplines its own.

    “The basic question, my lords, ladies and gentlemen is, how can we stop corruption when the scale is seemingly tilted in favour of the beneficiaries? While trying to improve discipline within the Bench, the leadership of the Judiciary has also taken steps to enact new guidelines that will see a more transparent recruitment process, thus ensuring that only persons that are intellectually sound with integrity are appointed as judicial officers ab initio.

    “It is important to highlight that the Bench is a product of the Bar and unless we work in synergy to ensure that only fit and proper persons remain in our midst, it will be impossible to expect a different Bench when its origin remains the same.

    “I hereby call on the leadership of the Bar to expunge from its ranks, such persons whose conduct may be unfit, improper, dishonest or otherwise unethical.  The time has surely come for us all to take concrete, meaningful and lasting action to exorcise the pernicious ghost of corruption from the most noble of professions,” the CJN said.

    Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Sam Sada blamed the problem of corruption on existing legal framework, which discourages openness in the activities of agencies as the CCB.

    Sada, who was represented by the Bureau’s Secretary, Kolade Omoyola, noted that legal impediments to the public declaration of assets by public officers had been a stumbling block in the fight against corruption.

    NBA President Augustine Alegeh (SAN) noted that despite the establishment of anti-corruption agencies, corruption was growing and remained untamed.

    “Successive governments had been quite vocal in their criticism of corruption and had wasted little or no time to draw up road maps and policies, which were claimed to be the final solution to ending the endemic scourge.

    “However, little success is recorded in this regard as these policies were either never implemented or when implemented, observed more in breach than in compliance,” Alegeh said.

  • NJC rejects two judge nominees for poor knowledge of law

    NJC rejects two judge nominees for poor knowledge of law

    The National Judicial Council (NJC) has rejected the nomination of two individuals for appointment as judges of the state High Court.

    Their rejection, the NJC said, was as a result of their poor knowledge of basic law after being interviewed by a panel constituted for that purpose by the NJC.

    NJC’s Acting Director, Information, Soji Oye, who disclosed this in a statement yesterday, was silent on the names of the nominees and the state from which they were sent to the NJC for interview.

    He said the state’s Judicial Service Commission had sentthem to the NJC for interview as required under the new rules in the Revised 2014 Guidelines and Procedural Rules on appointment of Judicial Officers of the Federation, that all candidates for appointment as judicial officers to superior courts of record shall be interviewed by the NJC.

    Oye said the NJC, at its 73rd meeting presided over by the Chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed also embargoed that appointment of judges in 26 courts in the country.

    The NJC spokesman, who was equally silent on the names of the affected courts, disclosed the council summoned three High Court judges from two states to appear before it for low performance and show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.

    The NJC “at its 73rdMeeting, considered the Report submitted by its Committee on Performance Evaluation of Judicial Officers of Superior Courts of Record in the Federation and decided to invite three High Court Judges from two States to appear before it for low performance and show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.

    “Council had two years ago introduced Freeze List of Courts that do not have sufficient work load and are not allowed to forward recommendation for new appointment of Judges to it until their workload improves.

    “At its recent Meeting, two Courts were put on the Freeze List by the Council bringing the total number of Courts in the Federation on the Freeze List to 26,” Oye said.

  • GTBank seeks NJC’s intervention in N5.2b judgment

    GTBank seeks NJC’s intervention in N5.2b judgment

    Guarranty Trust Bank (GT Bank) Plc has urged the Chief Justice and the Chairman of the National Judicial Commission (NJC), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, to order probe into the conduct of Justice Valentine Ashi of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Abuja over a N5.2 billion judgment against the bank.

    The suit was filed by Dr. Ted Isegholi Edwards against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and five others, including GT Bank.

    This was contained in a petition dated May 18, 2015, written by the bank through its counsel, Anthony Idigbe (SAN), and sent to the office of the CJN.

    The President of Court of Appeal and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were also copied.

    Justice Ashi had last Monday, ordered the bank to pay the plaintiff N5,240,516,186.21 for debiting the plaintiff’s account without his consent.

    Justice Ashi, who struck out all the other defendants apart from GT Bank for lack of jurisdiction, also ordered the bank to pay 21 per cent interest per annum on the judgment sum at the prevailing interest rate, whichever is higher calculated from December 12, 2014 up till date of judgment.

    It will also include post judgment interest of 10 per cent from the date of judgment until the judgment sum is liquidated.

    In its petition, the bank stated that the manner the  proceedings of the court were carried out engendered injustice, making it believed that the trial judge must have been compromised in the discharge of justice in the matter.

    It also asked that all culprits which the investigation may uncover be decisively brought to the books in accordance with the CJN’s established and renowned principles, which uphold natural justice, equity and good conscience.

    The bank expressed worry over undue speed with which it claimed the court handled the matter, arguing that the justice of the matter has been sacrificed at the altar of speed.

    It contended that the proceedings allegedly showed a clear determination by the judge to grant judgment against it.

    The bank hoped that the CJN should direct that appropriate steps be taken to ensure that the injustice meted to the bank as a result of the said judgment is not allowed to stand.

  • Try corrupt judges before retirement, NJC advised

    Try corrupt judges before retirement, NJC advised

    A justice of the Court of Appeal, Olubunmi Oyewole, has advised the National Judicial Council (NJC), to henceforth prosecute  judges found to be corrupt before their retirement to serve as deterent to others.

    Justice Oyewole made the suggestion last week in a  lecture tittled: “The role of the bar in exterminating the termite of impunity from Nigeria”, delivered at the Alao Aka-Bashorun annual memorial lecture, as part of activities marking the 2015  law week of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

    He insisted that lawyers, who encourage impunity in the administration of justice through filing of frivolous applications, should also be discouraged from such acts through appropriate rules.

    ”We must not venture the thought that it is only through corruption that lawyers encourage impunity in the administration of justice.

    “When frivolous applications are filed to frustrate trials, when unceasing interlocutory appeals are filed, when we totally turn professional ethics upside down all to satisfy clients, we as practitioners are engendering impunity.

    “When we look the other way while our clients jump bail, interfere with witnesses and in the conduct of our cases do everything to impede the flow of justice under an unbridled commitment to our clients, we encourage impunity.

    “And when we, as Judges, grant unnecessary adjournments, delay rulings and judgments, fail to take control of our proceedings and apply extant case management strategies, we unwittingly encourage impunity.

    “Impunity is a pattern of behavior that challenges the very fabric of any organised society, done out of a consciousness that the particular society lacks the institutions or is too weak to prevent or punish deviance. It is a conduct without (fear of) consequence or repercussion; crime without (fear of) punishment,” he emphasised.

    Justice Oyewole, who is of  the Benue State division of the Court of Appeal, lamented a situation whereby electoral offenders goes freely without being punished.

    He said: ”We have just gone through a nerve wrecking electoral process which questioned the very essence of our being as a nation. Today, many of our courts are engaged in the unending rituals of election petition adjudication, leading to a development of needless and unhelpful jurisprudence, all because our electoral process is far from being transparent.

    “A little scratch will reveal the presence of impunity. Year in year out, perpetrators of electoral offences go unpunished. In many instances, they are never apprehended and where apprehended, they are processed through the justice system and freed once the tendency they worked for, gains political power.”

    He berated the bar for being part of this abberation. “The  Bar appears disengaged while the criminal justice system is routinely abused in this manner. Leading members of the Bar even join the clamour for there to be put in place an Electoral Offences Tribunal so that electoral offenders could be brought to justice.

    “This is a mantra regularly chanted after every election as if the criminal codes do not capture these offences or that offences involved are not triable by the regular courts.

    “Murder is murder whether committed during electioneering campaigns or at any other time. Ditto for possession of dangerous weapons, and other violent conducts characterising our electoral process.

    “Our criminal codes are sufficiently capable of capturing the essence of these unacceptable conducts unless we want to be hypocritical,”he stated.

    Justice Oyewole decried  human rights abuses in the country in spite of constitutional provisions on the need to respect other person’s right to dignity.

    Said he: “When Courts impose penalties for human rights abuses by law enforcement agencies and tax payers are made to compensate the victims via damages paid by the agencies and not the offenders who in most cases even continue their careers as if nothing went wrong, impunity is enthroned.

    “It will be interesting to compute how much actually goes into settling damages imposed by courts against the Federal Government for human rights abuses annually. I have an inkling that the result would be very very interesting.”

    The Justice of the Appeal Court expressed regret at the level of drug abuse in the country, noting, “it is routine these days for flights in and out of Nigeria to be disrupted on account of the presence of suspected drug traffickers.

    “Many Nigerians have met their untimely deaths in some less tolerant jurisdictions on account of drug trafficking. A review of our investigative, prosecutorial and adjudicatory approach to the drug problem will reveal a systematic perpetuation of impunity over the years.

    “A few years ago a Nollywood star was caught attempting to ferry hard drugs across our borders. She got off with a slap on the wrist; a light penal sentence with an option to pay a ridiculous fine, amounting to a seeming judicial endorsement of her illicit activity.

    “Apparently encouraged, a couple of months after the sentencing, another Nollywood star, this time of the male specie, was arrested for a similar offence and he similarly got off,” he said.

    Justice Oyewole viewed piracy as an area where impunity has equally done grave damage to the rule of law in the country. “This time with our Nollywood stars, musicians and other creative talents as victims is in the battle against piracy,” he said.

  • NJC insists on power to sanction ex-Abuja CJ

    The National Judicial Council (NJC) has insisted that it has the powers to sanction any judge either serving or retired for misconduct perpetrated while in service.

    It therefore asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to void a judgment by the Federal High Court, Abuja, which voided its 2013 verdict on a former Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi, for “gross misconduct.”

    The NJC found Gummi guilty of gross misconduct in July 2013 shortly after he retired.

    The council in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by its spokesman, Soji Oye, said itparticularly found that Gummi interfered with the execution of a judgment delivered by Justice Jude Okeke, also of the Abuja High Court.

    The NJC, however, refrained from recommending punitive measures against him on the ground that he (Gummi) had left office.

    Before the NJC’s decision, Gummi sued the council and sought to restrain it from proceeding with its investigation of the petitions against him.

    In his judgment on March 17 this year, Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Abuja voided NJC’s findings on the ground that Gummi had retired and that there were pending cases relating to his alleged misconduct.

  • Nyako seeks NJC’s probe of alleged judgment arrest

    Nyako seeks NJC’s probe of alleged judgment arrest

    Former Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako has urged the National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate the alleged arrest of a judgment in his suit challenging his impeachment.

    Nyako, in two separate petitions to the commission dated February 13, said verdict in the case was ready only for it to be suspended.

    Justice Bilikisu Aliyu of the Federal High Court, Yola, had fixed February 12 for judgment after parties argued and adopted their briefs.

    But the verdict was not delivered as scheduled as the court’s Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim allegedly withdrew the case-file following a petition.

    Urging the NJC to urgently investigate the matter, Nyako through his lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, said his client believes there is a bid to frustrate the case.

    Nyako was impeached last year shortly after defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC).

    His deputy, Bala Ngilari, who remained in PDP, was said to have resigned moments before the House impeached Nyako, while the Speaker, Abubakar Fintiri was sworn-in as acting governor.

    However, Federal High Court in Abuja declared Ngilari’s purported resignation as unlawful and ordered Fintiri to vacate office as acting governor, following which Ngilari was sworn in as governor.

    Nyako had filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit before Justice Aliyu in Yola to contest the propriety of his impeachment after a similar suit in Lagos was struck out.

    “Why would Justice Auta not want the reserved judgment delivered contrary to his recent admonition to judges of the court at a workshop that political cases should be dispensed with before elections?” Ogungbeje wrote.

    According to Nyako, NJC should unravel why a judgment should be withdrawn based on a petition, wondering what allegations could be so weighty as to suspend a judgment for.

  • Judge withdraws from Justice Olotu’s cases against NJC, EFCC, others

    Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday withdrew from two suits filed by retired Justice Gladys Olotu, a former judge of the FHC.

    This is the second time the judge will withdraw from the case. He had returned the case files to the court’s Chief Judge on July 10, but had it sent back to him (Justice Ademola) to decide.

    Justice Olotu was compulsorily retired over “gross misconduct,” earlier this year by President Goodluck Jonathan following the recommendation of the National Judicial Council.

    At the time of her retirement, Justice Olotu was being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    She sued the anti-corruption agencies and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) among others, accusing them of violating her rights, and sought to restrain them from further investigating her.

    Lawyer to the NJC, Phillips Jimoh-Lasisi (SAN) on Monday urged the court to withdraw from the cases in view of the fact that he (Justice Ademola) had also sued the NJC before the Federal High Court, Abuja.

    Jimoh-Lasisi argued that since his client had, in their preliminary objection, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to hear the cases, the right thing to do was for the judge, who has equally sued the NJC before the same court, not to proceed to hear the defendants’ objection because it was clear what his position on the issue was.

     

  • Ex-judge sues NJC

    A retired Federal High Court, judge, Justice Charles Achibong, has sued the National Judicial Commission (NJC) for denying him access to his record of service to defend himself in petitions written against him and the report of the council’s investigation.

    In a suit he filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/837/2014, the judge, who last served in the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, said he had earlier last month, applied to the commission, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, for access to his service records, among others, but was denied.

    He argued in a supporting affidavit, that the NJC, being a public institution, has the obligation to avail him all he requested for in line with the provision of the FOI Act. He said he needed the information to defend himself against media publications that he was compulsorily retired on corruption grounds.

    Justice Achibong, in the suit before Justice Abdulkadir Abdulkafarati, is seeking among others, an order of Mandamus directing the NJC and its agents to provide him with “a comprehensive and detailed information demanded concerning his service records, judicial activities, clearances, warnings and certified records of proceedings of the defendants that resulted in its recommendation to the president the be compulsorily retired.

    Other reliefs sought by the plaintiff include: “A declaration that the refusal, failure and/or neglect by the defendant to release the information requested by the plaintiff concerning his service records, judicial activities including all petitions against him amounts to violation of Section 7(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 and is therefore wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional;

    *A declaration that the refusal, failure and/or neglect by the defendant to release the information requested by the plaintiff is a violation of the provisions of Section 4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011;

    *A declaration that by a true interpretation and construction of Section 4(a) of the FOI Act, 2011, the defendant as a public institution, within the meaning of Section 7 and 31 of the Act,  is under obligation to furnish  him with the information he, and that NJC’s refusal to provide what he requested for “amounts to a violation of Section 7(1) of the FOI Act, 2011 and is therefore, wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional”.

    The judge also sought a declaration that the refusal by the defendant to release the information he requested constituted a breach of the duty of care owed to him at Common Law. He also sought N1million for general damages and N500,000 from the defendant for wrongfully denying him the information.

  • Rivers CJ crisis: Supreme Court dismisses Agumagu’s appeal

    Rivers CJ crisis: Supreme Court dismisses Agumagu’s appeal

    The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed three appeals filed by the suspended Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice P. N. C. Agumagu.

    The court held that the appeal was premature.

    The National Judicial Council (NJC) suspended Agumagu earlier this year on the grounds that the decision by Governor Rotimi Amaechi to swear him in as the Chief Judge violated due process.

    NJC esplained that it did not recommend him to Amaechi for appointment as the Chief Judge, as required under the constitution.

    Dissatisfied with his suspension, Agumagu applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja for a judicial review of the NJC’s decision.

    In deciding how to proceed with the case, Justice Adeniyi Ademola heard the objection filed by NJC and other defendants with the substantive suit.

    The NJC appealed Justice Ademola’s decision at the Court of Appeal in Abuja. To allow for prompt hearing of its appeal, it compiled the records within 14 days.

    Agumagu’s lawyer, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), objected to the compilation of records in 14 days. He argued that the compilation did not follow due process.

    Olujimi contended that the law stipulated 60 days for the records to be compiled and that the leave of court ought to be obtained.

    He argued that the Court of Appeal had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal, if the records of appeal were not properly complied.

    The lawyer applied that the records compiled by NJC be struck out, a request the Court of Appeal refused. This prompted his appeal to the Supreme Court. He also asked the apex court to stay proceedings in the pending appeal by NJC.

    In his appeal to the Supreme, Olujimi contended that the Court of Appeal was wrong in its interpretation of the provisions of the Court of Appeal Practice Direction of 2013.

    Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who read the decision of the Supreme Court yesterday, said: “We have examined this and the other grounds of appeal and are satisfied that the issues in the appeal are matters that can be brought to this court when the appeals are concluded.

    “Accordingly, the application for a stay of proceedings of the pending appeals in the court of appeal is hereby struck out. Notice of Appeal to this court is also struck out.”

    The court dismissed the appeal and ordered the parties back to the Court of Appeal for hearing of the main appeal.

    The court said Agumagu should have appreciated the fact that the records were compiled earlier than the period stipulated by the law.

    The court ordered the Court of Appeal to hear the appeal with dispatch. It said that anyone aggrieved by the judgment of the Court of Appeal was at liberty to appeal such judgment.