The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has expressed confidence that the National Judicial Council (NJC) will do the right thing regarding the exclusion of the name of the most senior judge in list of nominees for appointment as Chief Judge of Gombe State
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Recall that Honourable Justice Beatrice Iliya has petitioned the NJC over the refusal of the Gombe State government to nominate her for appointment as Chief of the state even when she is the most senior Judge. She described it as injustice and defiance to the directive of NJC that her name be included.
TheNigeriaLawyer reached out to the NBA President, Olumide Akpata, to know the reaction of NBA and Akpata expressed confidence that NJC will do the right thing.
He said, “I am extremely concerned but I am hopeful that the NJC will do the right thing. My understanding before now is that the NJC has insisted that any list of potential CJs for Gombe must have the name of most senior judge, Mrs. Iliya, and this attempt now to send in a list without her name now must be condemned and hoping that the NJC will do the right thing to send the list back to those who sent it to them.”
Akpata said he has received a copy of Justice Iliya’s petition which was addressed to Justice Rhodes-Vivour.
He said Justice Iliya’s situation is disturbing but putting into consideration the position of NJC in recent times, especially with the case of Cross River, the NJC will do the right thing. He said NJC refused the request of Cross River Governor to appoint a different person outside the most senior judge as Chief Judge.
He said, “I want to assume and want to hope that on this occasion for Gombe, the NJC will uphold its previous position. So I cannot preempt them, I can only hope that they will do the right thing”.
As to what the NBA can do to stop such situation from reoccurring, Akpata said the country is a federation and the federation is run by human beings so “you cannot stop the government of states from attempting to impose their will on one arm of government.”
He added, “that is why the NJC is there, that is why NBA we are part of the NJC so we would have to hold our ground and insist that the right thing be done. I will not say that there is a silver bullet that we can use to stop people from doing or attempting to do the wrong thing.”
He said similar happened to Justice Karatu in Kebbi state. Even her entitlements are yet to be paid till today and he has taken the matter up with the Kebbi state authorities to see why she has not been paid.
He concluded that the best that can be done is to encourage people to do the right thing and “where necessary, we will go and get judicial interpretation or take it to the court for public opinion. But I don’t think we can find a solution that will stop people from behaving that way,” he added.
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