THREE senior judges have been sacked by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for abusing their offices by accepting gratifications from litigants before their courts after due consideration of petitions against them.
At its 78th meeting which held on September 29, the NJC under the chairmanship of the chief justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, suspended the three judges from office with immediate effect. Those affected are the presiding justice of the Court of Appeal Ilorin Division Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya, the chief judge of Enugu State Justice I A Umezulike and Justice Kabiru Auta of the High Court of Justice, Kano State.
After its meeting, the NJC not only suspended the three judges but also recommended the compulsory retirement of the three judicial officers. A file on their misdemeanours will also hand over to the police, meaning that they face possible prosecution.
NJC spokesman Soji Oye, said: “In the case of Hon Justice Kabiru M Auta, he is to be handed over to the assistant inspector-general of police, Zone 1, Kano, for prosecution. Hon Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya of the Court of Appeal was recommended for compulsory retirement from office to President Muhammadu Buhari, pursuant to the findings by the council in the petition written by Nnamdi Iro Oji against him and Hon Justices Husseini Muktar, F O Akinbami and J Y Tukur, all justices of Court of Appeal who sat on Election Appeal Panel in the Owerri Division of the court during the 2015 general elections."
He added that the petition contains allegations that include corruption, malice and vindictiveness. Also included is giving perverse and conflicting decisions on the same issue in similar matters.
According to Mr Oye, there was evidence that the petitioner met with Hon Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya thrice, in his residence in Sokoto, Gwarinpa, Abuja and Owerri where on each occasion, he demanded from him the sum of N200m to influence the Court of Appeal Panel in Owerri or risk losing the case. However, he added that the allegations of giving two conflicting judgements on the same matter was not true as the two judgements were in respect of two different appeals.
Hon Justice Umezulike, the chief judge, Enugu State was recommended to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, for compulsory retirement sequel to the findings by the council on the allegations levelled against him by Barrister Peter Eze. It was to do with a case involving the Nigerian Bottling Company in which final addresses were adopted on October 23 2014.
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