Real Reasons Justices Olotu,Inyanga Were Sacked...

On February 26, this year, the National Judicial Council (NJC) wielded its big stick again.The Council, on the day, recommended the sack of two serving high court judges from the bench to President Jonathan Goodluck
The affected judges were Justices Gladys Olotu of the Federal high court in Abuja and Justice U. A Inyang. The NJC said that the two judicial officers were indicted of gross misconduct.
Specifically, the NJC said that Hon. Justice G. K. Olotu was recommended for sack after she was indicted on allegations contained in various petitions against her.
For instance, she was indicted of failing to deliver judgment within the time prescribed by the 1999 constitution only to deliver same in Suit No. FHC/ UY/250/2003, 18 months after the final address by all the counsel in the suit, contrary to the constitutional provisions that judgments should be delivered within a period of 90 days;
Besides, the embattled judge was also said to have admitted before the fact finding committee of the Council that investigated a separate allegation on similar issue that she forgot she had a pending ruling to deliver in an application for joinder.
Worse still, it was also established against the judge that she entertained a post judgment matter in Suit No. FHC/ UY/CS/250/2003 in Port Harcourt after delivering judgment, which made her functus officio.
The NJC which said that Justice Olotu had no regard for the constitution also maintained that in another case: Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/505/2012, she failed to deliver judgment twice.
Justifying why Justice Inyang of the Abuja high court was sacked, the NJC said that the judge fraudulently included in his judgment, references to a garnishee proceedings, which came after the judgment had been delivered on 20th December, 2011.
He was also said to have included the name of the counsel to Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Chief Chukwuma Ekomaru, SAN, who came into the matter after the judgment in the matter had been delivered.
He was also found to have recklessly signed a writ of execution, a day after delivering his judgment of 20th December, 2011, the same day a notice of appeal and motion on notice for stay of execution were filed.
Justice Inyang was also established to have continued with a garnishee proceedings despite application for stay of execution and that before delivering his judgment of 20th December, 2011, he ignored a properly filed motion on notice for leave to file additional witness statement on oath.
After the NJC decided to recommend their removal from office, it further exercised its disciplinary powers under the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended to suspend the two judges from office with immediate effect.
The suspension was meant to subsist until the recommendation by NJC to sack them was endorsed by the President, Jonathan Goodluck. He has since endorsed the recommendation which effectively removed them from the bench on March 4, this year.
The NJC, on the same day, also issued warnings to three other justices including the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, Justice Dalhatu Adamu.
The other two judicial officers who were warned “to sin no more” included Justice A A Adeleye of the high court in Ekiti and Justice D O Amaechina of the Anambra high court.
The trio of Justices Dalhatu, Adeleye and Amaechina also faced the NJC panel over absenteeism and low performance- related offences.
Sunday Mirror investigation reveals that between February 28, 2013 and today, the NJC headed by Justice Muhktar had investigated so many allegations against many judicial officers, sanctioned six of them over misconduct with four receiving final warnings.
For instance, in February 2013, NJC recommended compulsory retirement of a Federal high court judge, Justice Charles Archibong and a Plateau state high court judge, Justice T.D. Naron over misconduct.
Also on April 26, 2013 NJC suspended Justice Talba from office for a period of twelve months for not exercising his discretion judiciously in a public interest litigation involving pension fund.
Besides, on July 18, 2013, NJC indicted a former Chief Judge of High Court of FCT, Abuja, Justice Lawal Gumi for interfering in a judgment in favour of the current Zamfara State Governor. The NJC described the acts of Mr. Gumi, who is now retired, as “most unethical and highly reprehensible.”
The Council also accepted the recommendation of its investigation committee that Hon. Justice Gumi was guilty of gross misconduct contrary to rule 1(i) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which would have led to his removal from office if he had not voluntarily retired.
Sunday Mirror authoritatively learnt that more heads would roll in the on-going effort by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar to cleanse the judiciary. Mukhtar is the Chairman of the National Council which had wielded the big stick ten times in the last one year.
NJC is a creation of section 153 of the 1999 constitution with statutory powers to hire and fire erring judicial officers. The Council had been talking tough since 1999 when the on-going democracy berthed. But it has not been as strict as it is under the leadership of Aloma Mukhtar.
The decision by the NJC to restructure the judiciary is in tandem with the policy rolled out last year by Mukhtar, that not only judges indicted of professional misconduct would be shown the way out of the bench, but also judges of low productivity or those that engages in petty misconduct like absenteeism.
For instance, the council issued a serious warning against Justice Dalhatu Adamu on 26th February for deliberately absenting himself from duty. The NJC stated that such attitude to work constituted an act of gross misconduct contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended and the Code of Conduct of Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to the NJC, it also found Hon. Justice A. A. Adeleye of High Court of Justice, Ekiti State and Hon. Justice D. O. Amaechina of High Court of Justice, Anambra State, respectively culpable of very low performance and decided to issue warning letters to them for decline in their productivity. Besides, Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court in Lagos who was to retire from service on May 18, 2013, was seriously warned.
Although no fewer than six judicial officers had been sanctioned in the last one year, Justice Olotu was one of the aggrieved judicial officers who had gone to court to challenge her removal from office.
She approached the court less than 24 hours after President Jonathan Goodluck endorsed her sack. Specifically, the former high court judge, Justice Gladys Olotu, sued the National Judicial Council (NJC) before the Federal high court sitting in Abuja for recommending her compulsory retirement. She is begging the court to review and reverse the decision.
Olotu who hired an Abuja-based member of the inner bar, Mr Sunday Ameh (SAN) to prosecute her case has already got the leave of the court to challenge the decision of the court. Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Abuja Federal high court is the trial judge in the matter.
He gave Olotu the leave to seek review of NJC decision in a proceeding held in chamber. Ameh confided in newsmen the outcome of the chamber proceedings. Olotu joined President Jonathan Goodluck, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Chief Judge of the Federal high court as defendant in the suit. She approached the court by way of certiorari application.
The high court judge had reportedly ordered Olotu to serve all parties in the case with copies of the processes filed in court. The matter has consequently been adjourned till March 19, 2014.
Although the court is yet to hear and pronounce on the merit of her case, the question is: how far can Justice Olotu go to reverse the NJC’s decision? While one or two judges had succeeded in the past to reverse NJC, only time will tell what future holds for Justice Olotu.