APGA: Forums Call For Probe Of Anambra Judge

Ahead of the forthcoming Anambra state governorship election and the crisis of leadership rocking ruling All Progressive. Grand Alliance, APGA, civil society groups under the auspices of Abuja Civil Society Forum, ACSF, on Monday called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, to investigate Justice Hope Ozor of the Anambra State High Court over allegations of abuse of office and subversion of justice. At a media briefing in Abuja, the group applauded the CJN over her declaration that there was no more room for any form of judicial rascality in the country. The Coordinator of the group, Hon. Oyetakin Ebenezer, stated that the CJN, alongside the National Judicial Council, NJC, has demonstrated commitment to this stance with the sanctions that had been handed down to erring judges in addition to the promptness with which petitions against judges are now treated. "We strongly believe that Nigerians owe it a duty to the nation’s judicial evolution to contribute their quota in this ongoing effort to sanitize the bench by coming forward to expose instances of willful shortcomings on the part of judicial officers" he added. On this note, the forum appealed to the CJN and NJC to immediately investigate the activities of Hon. Justice Hope O. Ozoh of the Awka Division of Anambra High Court, who has demonstrated beyond doubts through his actions that he answers to the Governor of Anambra state, Mr. Peter Obi instead of upholding justice in line with the oath he took. "While the instances of questionable rulings we will cite border on political. activities, we are afraid of how bad the magnitude of compromise would be for the other cases handled by this judge and how many Anambrarians and Nigerians might have suffered injustice because of the pecuniary interest of a man sworn to give them justice" the group noted. Justice Ozoh was accused to have flagrantly disregarded a subsistence order made by the Court of Appeal in Appeal number CA/84/2013 of April 8, 2013 which ordered the stay of execution of the order of an Enugu State High Court which had earlier sacked the Chief Victor Umeh led executives of the crisis ridden party. The Enugu Court had ordered Chief Umeh from parading himself as chairman of the party. The forum maintained that it is curious that the honorable justice agreed to entertain a suit over the legitimacy of a national convention of APGA when the leadership of the party as recognized by the Court of Appeal order was not present for the said exercise. "More curious is the fact that the judge refused to join the leadership of the party that is recognized by the said court order and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, despite several applications by these parties to be joined in the controversial suit that Justice Ozoh ruled on if only to get the opportunity to set the records straight" Oyetakin further stated that the judge’s action is an affront on the order of the Court of Appeal and would be consistent with his history as the same man who sold Governor Peter Obi the legitimacy not to conduct local government elections in Anambra state after almost eight years in office contrary to what is stipulated by the Constitution. "It is illuminating to recall that the same tactics of using proxies to file suits was employed: in this case Barrister Jezie Ekejiuba instituted suit No A/250/2010 against Governor of Anambra State & 2 Others to get the judicial fiat that has made Anambra state undemocratic today, since the local government is the very level that people have the greatest opportunity to exercise the rights assured in a democracy" he added. The Forum noted that it decided to raise this issue at this point because they see it as part of their contribution towards the effort to sanitize the judiciary and expressed that Justice Hope O. Ozoh must be immediately called to order before the kind of activities he is engaged in becomes contagious and spread to other states. "It is noteworthy that the contagion has started already as the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Innocent Umezulike similarly engaged in questionable judicial actions when he granted relief not sought by purportedly sacking the entire leadership of APGA when it was only Chief Victor Umeh was the only defendant in the case. While it is heartwarming that NJC has already queried the conduct of this judge, the fact that Justice Ozoh could still tread this path is indicative of the need for tougher sanctions that should include criminal trial of rouge judges" he added.