The National Judicial Council has commenced the probe of two chief judges and 13 other judges after various allegations were levelled against them.
Fifteen committees are investigating the allegations which were made in petitions sent to the NJC, a statement signed by the Council’s Director of Information, Soji Oye, for the Secretary, said.
According to it, the NJC which is Chaired by the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen, set up the committees at its 83rd Meeting.
“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,” the statement said.
The statement did not, however, disclose the name of the judges being investigated neither did it contain details of the allegations against them.
Out of the petitions, 31 were dismissed. Of the 31, 29 petitions were found to be unmeritorious, while the remaining two, written against Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court and Justice O. O. Akeredolu who is the Acting Chief Judge of Ondo State, were withdrawn by the petitioners.
Al-Sagr National Insurance Company who wrote against Justice Tsoho withdrew his petition since the judge had delivered the ruling in his case, while Chief Raheem Badmus who wrote against Justice Akeredolu also voluntarily withdrew his petition for personal reasons.
“Council treated the two petitions as withdrawn since it did not find anything in them sufficiently serious for further consideration as stipulated in Regulation 9 (1) of the Judicial Discipline Regulations,” the NJC said.
However, NJC said it considered and found worthy of further investigation, the petition written by Azi A. Phillip on behalf of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Plateau State Chapter, accusing Justice P. D. Damulak, the immediate past Chief Judge of Plateau State, of bias, for failing to make his judgment in Suit No. PLD/J/236/16 delivered on 4th November 2016 available to the parties till the time the petition was written against him. But it decided not to constitute a committee to look into the matter because the chief judge had already retired from service and was therefore no longer in the employment of the council.
The council also considered and dismissed petitions written against two other judges, namely, Justice L.T.C. Eruba of the High Court of Justice, Abia State and Grand Kadi Abdullahi Waiya of the Sharia’h Court of Appeal, Kano State, for lack of merit.
NJC also disclosed it agreed to report a legal practitioner, Mr. Adesina Ogunlana, to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) for misconduct, for the use of uncouth language in a petition written to the NJC against Justice O.O. Atilade, the immediate past Chief Judge of Lagos State.
The statement further read: “Council welcomed as good development, a letter from the Zamfara State Government approving the recommendation of the NJC for the compulsory removal of Justice Musa Ibrahim Anka from office for allegedly receiving a bribe of Two Hundred Thousand Naira (N200,000) from one Zubairu Abdumalik in order to deliver judgement in his favour.”
NJC had in 2011 made a recommendation to the Zamfara State Government for the removal of the judge.
The council last week also set up a mixed committee headed by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, to monitor judges handling corruption cases.
