Judicial Council Recommends Retirement Of Two Judges As Sanction

The National Judicial Council (NJC), under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed, has recommended the compulsory retirement of two judges from office.

A statement by a spokesman for the NJC, Soji Oye, said recommendations were given for the immediate retirement of Justice Gbaja-Biamila of Lagos State High Court pursuant to findings by the council on allegations contained in petitions written against him by Mr Candide Johnson.

Mr Johnson had accused him of delivering judgment 22 months after written addresses were adopted which the council said was contrary to the constitutional provisions that judgments should be delivered within a period of 90 days.

The Council also said Justice Gbaja-Biamila had failed to publish a copy of a judgment he delivered on 24 December, 2013 until after 40 days, contrary to the provision of the Constitution which required that a copy of the Judgment of a Superior Court of Record be given to Parties in the case within seven days of delivery.

Recommendation was also given for the compulsory retirement of Justice Idris Evuti of the Niger State High Court for allegedly falsifying his date of birth.

The Council made the recommendation after it considered a petition written by Mohammed Eggun against Justices Evuti and another Tanko Yusuf of the High Court of Niger State on falsification of their dates of birth.

He alleged that Justice Evuti falsified his age from 15 September, 1950 to 10 April, 1953 and Justice Yusuf falsified his age from 27 June, 1950 to 27 June, 1951.

A Fact Finding Committee set-up by the Council found from the records made available to it that Justice Evuti used three different dates of birth over the years as 15 September, 1950, 10 April, 1953 and 1 April, 1953 and therefore recommended his compulsory retirement with immediate effect.

“Apart from the recommendation for compulsory retirement of Justice Evuti, Council recommended to the Government of Niger State to deduct all salaries received by him from September, 2015 till date from his gratuity and remit same to the National Judicial Council that pays salaries of all Judicial Officers in the Federation,” the statement read.

The Council did not recommend the compulsory retirement of Justice Usman because it had already accepted his retirement with effect from 1 March, 2016.

However, Council decided to write to the Government of Niger State, to deduct from the gratuity the salaries received by him from June 2015 when His Lordship should have retired from the Bench.