The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has disclosed that judges who recently gave conflicting judgments from the same courts are being investigated based on the petition written against such judicial officers, assuring that action will be taking accordingly against them.
Mohammed made the clarification in Abuja on Monday, during the special session of the Supreme Court to mark the commencement of the 2016-2017 legal year and inauguration of 22 newly conferred Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
Recently, the Justice Okon Abang-led Federal High Court in Abuja sacked the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, asserting that every action the Committee had taken since it emerged through a convention the party purportedly held in Port Harcourt on May 21, amounted to a nullity.
Meanwhile, an FCT High Court restrained Senator Ali Modu Sheriff from further parading himself as the National Chairman of the PDP, holding that by reason of the judgment of Justice Valentine B. Ashi in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/1867/2016 filed by Chief Joseph Jero against the PDP, which nullified the amendment of the provisions of Article 47 (6) of the PDP constitution 2012, Ali Modu Sheriff was not validly elected as National Chairman of the PDP abinitio.
The Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Nwamaka Ogbonnaya, re-affirmed the sack of Sheriff as the Chairman of PDP on the ground that the judgment of Justice Valentine Ashi which nullified his appointment on June 29th still subsists.
Another conflicting judgment was given in the PDP crisis in Abia State over the alleged tax clearance certificate scandal involving Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and his closest rival in the PDP primary election, Uche Ogah.
The CJN held that the constitution has clearly placed on the NJC, the power to exercise discretionary control over judicial officers.
He also said that lawyers who write petitions against judges and other judicial officers directly to the President without going through the National Judicial Council would be punished by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. Mohammed stated that in line with the provisions of the constitution, the Judicial Discipline Regulations 2014 comprehensively sets out the procedure for making a complaint, without undue interference from other arms of government.
According to him, “Let me state before the court stands that the case of courts of coordinate jurisdiction giving conflicting judgments will be addressed. All the judges involved are being investigated and action will be taken against them accordingly.
“It is therefore of great concern that lawyers, litigants and even members of the public route complaints against judicial officers to the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I am most dismayed that legal practitioners who ought to better appreciate the need for the independence of their primary constituency would engage in this misguided practice.
“I must admit that these cases were particularly distasteful and have been marked for action against the erring counsel by the LPDC.”
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