JUSUN Condemned Suspension of Justice Theresa Uzokwe

Judiciary workers, under the aegis of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, on Sunday condemned the suspension of the Chief Judge of Abia State, Justice Theresa Uzokwe, by the Abia State House of Assembly.

Justice Uzokwe was reportedly removed on Friday as the Abia State chief judge by the lawmakers, who reportedly adopted the report of an eight-man ad hoc committee. The committee indicted the judge for misconduct.

They directed Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to appoint an acting Chief Judge pending the completion of investigation by its committee into alleged acts of misconduct by Justice Uzokwe.

The governor had subsequently appointed Justice Obisike Orji as the acting chief judge of the state.

But speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, the National President of JUSUN, Mr. Marwan Adamu, said the suspension of the chief judge without the recommendation of the National Judicial Council was unacceptable.

He said, “What is happening in Abia State is unacceptable. The suspension did not follow due process. If the chief judge has done anything wrong, there is a procedure.

“The House of Assembly cannot unilaterally suspend her without the input of the National Judicial Council. We expect that if the chief judge did anything wrong, the House of Assembly would write to the NJC to enable the NJC to act on it. But in a situation that the process was not followed, I think it is null and void.

“It happened in Rivers, Sokoto and Kwara states, and the cases were fought up to the Supreme Court which ruled that a chief judge could not be suspended without the NJC’s recommendations.”

He also said the union was not aware of the allegations levelled against the suspended chief judge.

“We are monitoring the situation. We are going to meet and have a resolution on the matter. But for now, we condemn it and we are asking the state House of Assembly and the authorities in Abia State to respect the rule of law,” he said.

Similarly, a human rights advocacy group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, has condemned the suspension of Uzokwe by the state House of Assembly.

It equally flayed Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s replacement of Justice Uzokwe with Justice Obisike Orji as the acting chief judge of the state.

In a statement issued on Sunday by its Deputy Director, Adewale Timothy, SERAP argued that Justice Uzokwe’s removal violated Sections 292(1)(a)(ii) and 21(d) Part 11 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.

It said, “It amounts to a blatant attack on the integrity and independence of the judiciary. No judge, anywhere in Nigeria, can be removed without the involvement of the National Judicial Council, no matter the level of allegations of misconduct against that judge.

“Governor Ikpeazu must rescind his illegal appointment of a new chief judge, and the Abia State House of Assembly must withdraw the apparently politically-motivated suspension of Justice Uzokwe without further delay. Doing so will be entirely consistent with the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case of Raliat Elelu-Habeed & anor v Attorney General of the Federation and Attorney General of Kwara State (2012).”

By Ade Adesomoju and Oladimeji Ramon

Killings forced 10,000 pupils out of school – Benue SUBEB

The Benue State Universal Education Board has said that at least 10, 000 pupils have been forced out of schools in two local government areas of the state which came under attack by gunmen on New Year’s Day.

The chairman of the board, Rev. Philip Tachin, on Sunday in Makurdi said many schools were affected as many families fled their homes alongside the children to different camps following the invasion of Guma and Logo LGAs of the state by gunmen.

Tachin lamented that the situation had posed a setback for the board which recently embarked on massive campaign for increased enrolment of pupils into public primary schools in the state at the commencement of the new academic session few months ago.

He said it was disheartening to see hundreds of school children forced out of school due to the invasion by suspected herders of some communities in the Guma and Logo areas when he paid a visit to the camp few days ago to donate relief materials.

Tachin said, “The Executive Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency gave me staggering statistics of children numbering 2,050 who are locked up in this camp in Gbajimba. Apart from these children from the rurala areas that have been camped here, the primary school in Gbajimba has also been shut down in order to accommodate the refugees since there are no enough IDP camps.

“This is the multiplier effect of this genocidal operation. There are six IDP camps in these two affected local government areas and if the statistics of these schoolchildren are the same across the IDPs camps, over 10,000 children have been forced out of school.”

According to him, the development was antithetical to the Universal Basic Education Commission’s intensive effort to mop up out-of-school children in the state.

Tachin expressed worry that the gunmen who, he said, had no value for education were on a mission to destroy education, adding that, if the Federal Government was not decisive in putting a stop to the killings, then its efforts in education would be a mere waste of resources.

“Many schools have been affected, though we have yet to ascertain whether school buildings have been destroyed the same way they do to houses in villages. We met one of the cops that were attacked by the armed herdsmen and he confirmed that they were Fulani herdsmen.

“They were heavily armed and were among their cattle. The Federal Government should be honest by not playing politics with this serious security problem because it is capable of leading to a conflagration. We want one Nigeria and we shouldn’t be pushed to having a divided country,” Tachin said.

Men Raped four years old girl

It was a sad story on Friday the 26th of January 2018, when the story got to us at F.C.T. high court Gwagwalada judicial division, some little kids between 4 and 9 years old that were raped by some men whom have already been arraigned and the matter is ongoing in the same court. See this video to hear details from the Prosecutor in charge of the matter. 

You can also see this video on our twitter page @theheritagemag or our Facebook page www.fb.com/theheritagefrontiers