NJC moves to weed judiciary of corruption, set up panels to probe 15 judges

Bedeviled with myriads of petitions of alleged misconduct of 15 judges including two Chief Judges, the National Judicial Council has set up separate panels to investigate the affected judges.

The NJC director of information, Mr. Soji Oye, made this known in a statement he made available to newsmen on Monday. He explained that the 15 judges will face 15 recently constituted panels. He further said that 31 petitions leveled against other judges were found to be unmeritorious.

“The National Judicial Council, under the chairmanship of the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Mr. Justice Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen, GCON, at its 83rd meeting constituted 15 committees to investigate various allegations in the petitions written against 15 judicial officers, including two Chief Judges.

“Council took the decision after considering the reports of the two Preliminary Complaints Assessment Committees on 46 petitions written against judicial officers in the federal and state judiciaries.

“It dismissed a total number of 31 petitions, 29 of which it found unmeritorious, and the remaining two written against Hon. Mr. Justice J.. T. Tsoho of the Federal High Court and Hon. Mr. Justice O. O. Akeredolu, Acting Chief Judge of Ondo State, were withdrawn at the instance of the petitioners..

“Al-Sagr National Insurance Company, who wrote against Hon. Mr. Justice Tsoho, withdrew his petition since the Hon. Judge had delivered the ruling in his case.

“Chief Raheem A. Badmus, who wrote against Hon. Justice Akeredolu, also voluntarily withdrew his petition for personal reasons,” the statement partly read.

The statement also said that petitions against Justice L. T. C. Eruba of the High Court of Justice, Abia State, and Grand Kadi Abdullahi Waiya of the Sharia Court of Appeal, Kano State were also dismissed.

Also, petitions written against two other judicial officials were dismissed “for lack of merit,” the NJC said.

The statement went further to say that it issued two letters of advice to Justices Mojisola Dada of the High Court of Lagos State and Chukwudi Charles Okaa of the Anambra State High Court “for violation of extant laws in the course of their judicial duties”.

It said that the immediate past Chief Judge of Plateau State, Justice P. D. Damulak, would have been probed but escaped since he had retired from office.

“Council considered and found worthy of further investigation the petition, written by Azi A. Phillip, on behalf of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Plateau State Chapter, accusing Hon. Justice P. D. Damulak, the immediate past Chief Judge of Plateau State, of bias, for failure to make his judgment in Suit No. PLD/J/236/16 delivered on 4th November, 2016, available to him till the time he wrote the petition.

“Council however decided not to constitute an Investigative Committee to look into the matter because the Hon. Chief Judge had already retired from service and therefore no longer in the employment of the National Judicial Council,” NJC said.

NJC also stated that it received a letter from the Zamfara Sate government sanctioning the Council’s recommendation for the compulsory removal of Justice Musa Anka of the Zamfara State High Court.

The NJC’s statement further read in part, “Council welcomed as good development, a letter from Zamfara State Government approving the recommendation of the National Judicial Council for the compulsory removal of Hon. Mr. Justice Musa Ibrahim Anka from office for allegedly receiving a bribe of N200,000 from one Zubairu Abdumalik in order to deliver judgement in his favour.

“The recommendation was made to the Zamfara State Government by Council in 2011.”

The chairman of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Adesina Ogunlana, NJC said had been reported to the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee for allegedly employing “uncouth language in a petition” he authored against the immediate past Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice O. O. Atilade.

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