The Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy (CRPA) has implored the National Judicial Commission (NJC), and well-meaning Nigerians to act immediately to save the judiciary from further humiliation.
It described as a disturbing trend, a recent case where two court orders were made by two Judges – Hon. Justice Ibrahim Mohammed and Hon. Justice O. A. Adeniyi – on the same application over the same subject matter.
CRPA in a statement signed by Mr. Ifeanyi Okechukwu warned that the move is capable of eroding the integrity of the nation’s judiciary and bringing it to disrepute.
The action is unprecedented and unheard of anywhere in the history of the judiciary in Nigeria that two judges of the same court will sit over one suit in their respective courts on the same subject bearing the same suit number and made different orders on the same day,the group said.
Maintaining that the actions of the judges “is shameful and not a reflection of the high standards expected of judges of the FCT High Court,” group said that the application entertained by Justice Ibrahim Mohammed on the May 23, 2022 wherein he made an order was also moved and entertained by Justice O. A. Adeniyi on May 27, 2022.”
Justice Mohammed had on May 13, 2022 ruled that the tenure of the Chairmen of the Six Area Councils and their Councilors in the FCT is now four years.
The group alleged that in a dramatic twist of events, Abubakar Jabrin Giri, the Chairman-elect of Gwagwalada Area Council inorder to have the judgment set aside, filed an application at the Registry of Hon. Justice Ibrahim Mohammed’s Court, while the Hon. Minister of the FCT filed his own application to set aside the judgment at the Registry of Hon. Justice O. A. Adeniyi’s court.
The statement also alleged that “both Justice Mohammed and Justice Adeniyi on May 23, 2022, sat and heard the same application in their respective courts and made different orders on the same application to have the judgment of Hon. Justice Ibrahim Mohammed set aside.”
It added that the prevailing public perception that the judges may have been compromised to set aside the judgment extending the tenure of the chairmen of the six Area Councils and their councilors is destructive and could lead to loss of confidence in the judicial process which in turn will result in anarchy as people will resort to self help to resolve their differences instead of taking the due process of law.