The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim Muhammad, has summoned three judges to come before the National Judicial Council (NJC) to give reason why disciplinary action should not be taken against them for granting the conflicting ex parte orders.
The CJN issued a summons on August 30, demading explanation from the judges on their recent court orders.
The judges involved are the chief judges of Rivers, Kebbi, Cross River, Anambra, Jigawa, FCT and Imo states
The judges had issued conflicting orders on issues bordering on the leadership crisis affecting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and matters relating to candidates for the Anambra governorship election scheduled for November.
In a statement by the NJC Director of Information, Soji Oye, the meeting, which commenced at 11 am on Monday, and lasted till 5:30 pm, began with one-on-one interaction with the chief judges.
“Each of the CJs was separately quizzed personally by the CJN for over an hour, before later reading a riot act in a joint session with all of them,” Oye said.
Oye said the CJN, who was visibly angry, stated that “damage to one jurisdiction is damage to all. We must therefore put an end to indiscriminate granting of ex parte orders, conflicting judgments or rulings occasioned by forum-shopping.”
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“Your job as heads of the court is a sacred one, and it, therefore, includes you vicariously taking the sins of others. There must be an end to this nonsense. You shall henceforth take absolute charge in assigning cases or matters, especially political personally. We shall make an example with these three Judges and never shall we condone such act,” the CJN was quoted to have said.
However, the names of the three judges referred to were not mentioned.
The CJN further warned the judges to avoid “unnecessary assumption of jurisdiction in matters with similar subject and parties already before another court, protect the court from lawyers that are out for forum shopping, and work in tandem with all their Judges to salvage the image of the judiciary”.
“Justice Muhammad also warned the CJs [against] making newly appointed judicial officers vacation judges and assigning complex cases to inexperienced judges,” the statement reads.
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