Buhari ready to act on indicted judges —Presidency

FEDERAL judges recommended for dismissal or compulsory retirement by the National Judicial Council (NJC) but still technically in service will soon have their cases acted upon, the Presidency has revealed.

The development is coming on the heels of 30 fresh petitions tabled before the council for consideration.

However, the meeting of the council earlier scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday this week to consider the petitions, Nigerian Tribune learnt, has been shifted due to the Sallah holiday, which would affect logistics for members coming from outside Abuja.

It could not be ascertained as of press time if the meeting had been rescheduled.

The cancelled meeting was supposed to be the final one for the outgoing secretary of the council, Halilu Danladi, who will retire on June 30.

The new secretary, Ahmed Saleh, will resume on July 1.

The only condition given by the presidency is for the NJC to prepare a list containing all the outstanding cases and forward it to President Muhammadu Buhari for immediate action.

In the heat of the tiff between the Presidency and the council over the six recalled judges, NJC had accused the Presidency and some state governors of not acting on some of its recommendations sacking some federal and state judges for misconduct.

NJC, in a statement by its spokesperson, Mr Soji Oye, promised to make a list of such judges, but only for the public.

The statement added that NJC would soon issue an advertorial and list out the number of judicial officers that had been dismissed or compulsorily retired by the president or governors for gross misconduct or corrupt practices, on its recommendation, and also reprimanded by council for suspension or warning/caution.

The list is yet to be out.

Justices Mohammed Yunusa of the Federal High Court, Lagos and Kabiru Auta of Kano State High Court are two names always mentioned by the council whenever the allegation of executive tardiness was being levelled against the Presidency and governors.

Both were recommended for sanctions by the council but the executive was yet to act on the recommendations.

Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, told the Nigerian Tribune that once the full list was made available to the president, there would be immediate action on the affected judges.

He, however, dared the council to also make public the list of all the judges that had passed through its disciplinary procedure and the steps taken against them.

He accused the council of shielding allegedly corrupt judges, by refusing to act on petitions against them.

He specifically pointed out a petition against Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, by an Anambra politician, accusing him of corruption and misconduct by sitting on appeal in a case already decided by a court of coordinate jurisdiction headed by the late Justice Chukwu.

The presidential aide, however, revealed that the same petition was receiving the attention of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

The minister could not be reached for his position on the said petition as he was said to be abroad.