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NJC clears Lagos judge of alleged misconduct, perversion of justice

By Godwin Dunia
28 December 2016   |   4:23 am
The National Judicial Council (NJC) has cleared a Lagos High Court judge, Justice Iyabo Oladunni Kasali of allegation of judicial misconduct.
PHOTO: Channelstv

PHOTO: Channelstv

The National Judicial Council (NJC) has cleared a Lagos High Court judge, Justice Iyabo Oladunni Kasali of allegation of judicial misconduct.

The council also dismissed a petition written against her over an alleged perversion of justice by a lawyer, Evans Azuike.

Azuike had in the petition to the NJC dated May 24, 2016 alleged that Justice Kasali struck out a suit without justification and deliberately refused to release exhibits tendered in the case.

He also said the alleged refusal to release the exhibits 11 months after the suit was struck out had hindered immediate commencement of a fresh suit.

The petitioner further alleged that the delay in releasing the exhibits enabled the defendants to mobilise men and materials to complete the structure, which they had erected on the disputed land prior to the assignment of the suit to Justice Kasali in 2013.

However, following deliberation by NJC, it resolved that the petition lacked merit and evidence to establish the allegations against
Justice Kasali.

Therefore, the council in a letter held that no act of judicial misconduct was established against the judge.

Part of the letter reads: “The NJC set up a three-man committee to investigate the allegations contained in a petition dated May 24, 2016 against Justice Iyabo Oladunni Kasali of High Court of Justice, Lagos State. The committee finds that no act of judicial misconduct was established by the petitioner against the judge.”

Justice Kasali in her evidence stated that she did not sit on the exhibits as alleged and that she neither delayed nor obstructed justice.

She also told the committee that the suit in question was inherited by her as a trial court when she was newly posted to High Court of Lagos State.

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