The names of about ten dead and retired judges appeared among the recently sworn-in 250 election tribunal members. Lawyers in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, told Daily Independent about the inclusion of dead and retired judges in the list.
According to the newspaper, the group of concerned lawyers who
declined being identified, faulted the list of the recently sworn in
250-tribunal members as parading over 10 names of dead and retired
judges.
They admitted that this would not be the first time the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led government has displayed this level of
“cluelessness and carelessness in handling sensitive issues concerning
Nigeria.”
They described “a posthumous appointment of anyone for such sensitive role in the country as burying Nigeria alive.”
The new acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Tanko Mohammed swore in
250 members of the election tribunals at the Supreme Court Complex in
Abuja.
DAILY POST reported that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday
suspended Justice Walter Onnoghen and swore in Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed as
acting CJN.
Some Nigerians who have long been dead and buried have posthumously made the list.
One of the lawyers told Daily Independent that up to 10 judges in the list were dead.
He named Justice Edemekong Edemekong whose name appeared as number 58
on the list and declared that the late Justice died since 2013.
Another, Justice Chukwu, from Ebonyi State and number 53 on the list,
who was formerly of the Federal High Court, is also said to have been
long dead.
The lawyer’s revelation also indicated that Justice Stephen Okon, a
retired Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State and justice Okoyo Essang (number
56), a retired justice of the High Court in Akwa Ibom State, both made
the list.
The lawyers expressed concerns that if such errors could be spotted
at a glance on such a sensitive list and on the first official outing of
the new acting CJN, then Nigeria may be heading towards a doom.
“If dead and retired men are to sit on our election petition
tribunal, then the APC-led federal government is out to drown this
country and we vehemently reject a list parading dead men as members of
the tribunal,” they said.
