Abia Chief Judge loses job

Unless he offers a satisfactory explanation over allegations of partisanship and abuse of office leveled against him, Justice S.N. Imo, Abia state Chief Judge, may soon lose his job.

Justice Imo, recently, got queried by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and Chairman, National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Idris Kutigi (photo top left), over allegations of partisanship and abuse of office raised against him by the state chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In the memo, dated January 21, 2009, the Kutigi directed Justice Imo to respond to a petition before the NJC accusing him of having committed the offences.

In the petition dated January 14, 2009 and signed by Chief Ndidi Okereke, Abia state chapter chairman of PDP, Justice Imo was accused of being a willing “tool” in the hands of “desperate politicians” intent on destabilizing the party in the state.

Okereke, in the petition entitled, ‘Re-Conspiracy and Abuse of Judicial Powers by Justice S. N. Imo, the Chief Judge of Abia State’, accused Justice Imo of descending into ‘the murky realm of Abia politics’, a situation that had led him to pursue narrow interests of the People’s Progressives Alliance (PPA) government in the state. The servitude attitude of Justice Imo is allegedly informed by his eagerness to compensate the state government which, ‘in breach of the seniority profile of the state judiciary, appointed him Chief Judge.

KlinReports was told that Okereke’s petition followed a January 13, 2009 ruling delivered by the CJ, in which he (CJ) accepted and based judgment on a “Report of Settlement”, allegedly, presented by PDP in the state to settle, out of court, an intra-party dispute pending before the state judiciary.

In the said suit, former Abia State chairman of PDP, Chief Alfredo Orie Awah, and his erstwhile executive committee contended that their tenure had not expired and prayed the court to declare the tenure of Okereke illegal. But while the matter was in court, Prince B. B. Apugo, a chieftain of PDP in the state, initiated an out-of-court settlement process, which the feuding parties accepted.

The PDP chairman alleged, in the petition to NJC, that the settlement process was inconclusive when Apugo unilaterally prepared a “report of settlement” that he presented in the CJ (Imo)’s court to obtain judgment in favor of the Awah-led faction.

To facilitate their plot to hijack the party, the plaintiffs (Awah and others), the petition stated, procured a letter from the National Chairman of the party, addressed to Prince B. B. Apugo, entreating him to, as an elder statesman of the party, help in restoring peace in Abia PDP.

Prince Apugo, following the said letter, called two meetings of all the parties involved in the strife. Okereke said though he did not attend the meetings he sent representatives, adding that the meetings were successful to the extent only that it was resolved to explore out of court settlement.

The petition recalled that when the Awah suit was first mentioned in High Court 4, Umuahia, on 8/12/08, it was adjourned on the agreement of both parties to 17/12/08 for possible report of settlement.

But on the return date, the judiciary staff union was on strike, and, as such, courts did not sit.

Stated the petition: “Between the 8/12/08 and today, 14/1/09, no other meeting took place between the parties and no contacts or discussions of any kind took place between the parties. Neither the National Chairman nor the parties to the dispute appointed Prince B. B. Apugo arbitrator, nor was the dispute ever submitted to any arbitration. The parties were yet to meet to discuss the terms of settlement, but Prince B. B. Apugo unilaterally produced a document, which he styled, ‘Report of settlement by Prince B. B. Apugo,’ without any input whatsoever from the defendants. The statements credited to me in the said report are totally false, as I did not attend any of the meetings”.

Okereke alleged that while the parties to the dispute were working to reach acceptable terms of settlement, Justice Imo surreptitiously got the suit transferred to his court from Justice A. Kalu, the trial judge of High Court 4 where it was hitherto pending. The object of this transfer, the petition alleged, was to procure judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

PDP, Abia state chapter, therefore, called for intervention of the Chief Justice of Nigeria in the matter.
It was in reaction to this petition that Kutigi fired a memo to Justice Imo to, within two weeks, respond to the foregoing allegations bordering on partisanship and abuse of office against him.

Kutigi wrote: “I forward herewith a petition dated 14th January 2004 against you by one Chief Ndidi Okereke, chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abia State, on the above subject matter. The petition speaks for itself. I shall be glad to have your comments within two weeks from the date of receipt of this letter.”
KlinReports gathered that the embattled Abia Chief Judge has, since, responded to the charges as directed by the Chief Judge of Nigeria. And the National Judicial Council (NJC), it was learnt, has secretly investigated the veracity or the otherwise of the allegations against Justice Imo.

If Imo is found culpable of charges of partisanship and abuse of office, he stands to lose his job since the NJC has direct supervisory role over the activities of chief judges in Nigeria.