Leadership (Abuja)
Sunday Isuwa
13 October 2008
Citizens of Imo State have continued to express shock over the deplorable state of the judiciary as some of the courts now hold sessions under trees or in open air.
A good example, the group said, is the state High Court in Uruala, Ideato-North Local Government Council of the state where the presiding Judge Hon. Justice C.A. Ononeze, was photographed last week holding her court session under a mango tree.
Speaking to Journalists on the issue, an indigene of the state who hails from Isie Kenesi, a neighboring town to Uruala, Ken Udemba, expressed shock that such a thing could happen in modern day Nigeria.
"It is like a scene from pre-historic age. I cannot believe that in this 21st century, a court in Nigeria would be sitting under a tree. It is a shame, a national disgrace", he said.
Mr. Udenba whose town is Ideato-South Council area of the state, lamented that if something was not done very urgently to save the situation, then the administration of Justice in the state will become zero.
Also reacting to the issue, a legal practitioner who gave his name simply as Barrister Eziogu, said that the National Judicial Council (NJC) should ask the Imo State Chief Judge to account for the allocations he gets every year.
"The NJC doles out N200,000 to states chief Judges for the maintenance of court under their jurisdiction every year. So what has the Imo State Chief Judge, Hon Justice Paul Onumagwu been doing with his own allocation all these years"?
NJC must investigate what the monies sent to Imo State through him, have been used for", he said.
A, socio-political group based in Owerri, Imo Democratic Congress, has condemned the decay of the Imo Judiciary in the last one year, stating that the continual neglect of that important arm of government by the Ikedi Ohakim government was no longer acceptable to the people who see the Judiciary is the last hope of the commonman and, therefore, must be given its due.
The group in a statement by its executive secretary, Mr. Maximus Uba, said it was reacting to the front page photograph in Daily Champion newspapers of October 7 2008, which showed a Judge of the State High Court conducting judicial matter under a tree and then called on lawyers and judicial officers including Judges in the State to rise up and stem the decay of the Judiciary by a government which has failed in all spheres.
The statement read in part. "The attention of Imo Democratic Congress has been drawn to the front page photograph of the Champion newspaper wherein a Judge was pictured holding court under a mango tree.
The entire thing shows the level of attention the Ikedi Ohakim is giving to real governance in Imo State but our worry is that if the Judiciary can be treated so shabbily with Judges sitting under trees and without materials, then you can imagine the state of our hospitals, schools and infrastructure.
The decay in the Judiciary confirms our continual position that the Ikedi Ohakim administration is after all a mis- adventure an after-thought and a government that has outlived its usefulness.
Again, for a government which is busy spending billions of Naira buying Judges to stay in power whereas its own Judiciary is in tatters stands condemned both in the eyes of men and God.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
