A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has declared that the National Judicial Council, NJC, has no constitutional powers to investigate or discipline retired judges who were accused of complicity in perversion of justice.
The court, in a judgment delivered yesterday on a suit that was brought before it by the former Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi, said the disciplinary powers of the Council was limited to only serving judicial officers.
While delivering judgment on the suit, Justice Abdul Kafarati maintained that the erstwhile Chief Judge of the FCT, Gummi, ceased to be a judicial officer after he voluntarily resigned from office on May 13, 2013.
Gummi, who was supposed to leave office as CJ this year, resigned his position barely three weeks after the NJC commenced investigation into a petition that sought his sack over alleged judicial impropriety. He resigned a day after he was crowned as the new Emir of Gummi Community in Zamfara state.
The NJC, despite his voluntary retirement, went ahead and constituted a panel that probed the allegation of judicial malpractice leveled against him.
Gunmi was investigated based on a petition forwarded to NJC by Nestello Gateway Group in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/486/10, and found him guilty.
According to a statement issued then by Council, the then CJ was said to have unduly interfered and perverted the course of justice in the case between Nestello Gateway Group and Governor Abdul’aziz Yari of Zamfara State, adding that its findings revealed that the ex-CJ interfered in the execution of a judgment delivered by Justice Jude Okeke of the FCT High Court, Abuja.
“Council also found the interference of Gummi in the execution of the judgment as most unethical and highly reprehensible,” the NJC statement said.
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