Access to Justice (A2J) has called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to release the status of its inquiry in the case of a Justice of the Court of Appeal and nominee for Supreme Court, Chidiebere Ụwa. The group in a statement signed by its Programme Attorney, Mrs. Chinelo Chinweze, wants the council to reveal if Uwa may have abused her office as judge and violated the code of conduct for judicial officers while serving as a judge in Abia state.

The group stated that in 2005, the then chairman of Aba South Local Government, Dr. G. C. Duru, wrote a petition against Justice Uwa, then a High Court Judge, alleging extortion, bribery and intimidation against her.

Access to Justice said it further made representations to the NJC asking it to look into the allegations, and, after many reminders, the NJC declined to make known the results of its investigation, saying they were classified.

“Doubting that the NJC conducted any investigation into the complaint, given particularly, that the original author of the complaints said at the time, that the NJC never called him to come forward with the evidence, including bank tellers showing the transactions he claimed took place, Access to Justice made further representations to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) asking the Commission to conduct investigations into the allegations by the petitioner.

“After two years, the ICPC determined that it could not take further action on the matter, given, in its words, that while there was “actus reus” on the part of Justice Uwa, there was no “mens rea” on her part to commit the offence.”

“However, a remarkable finding of the ICPC was that Justice Uwa indeed solicited funds from the petitioner on behalf of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), although the Commission said there was no evidence that the funds were actually transferred to FIDA,” A2J said.

The group, upon noting the name of Justice Uwa amongst those shortlisted by the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) for consideration by the NJC for recommendation as a Supreme Court Justice, last year, wrote to the NJC, requesting the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to review allegations made some years ago against Uwa and determine whether it is appropriate to offer her a position on Nigeria’s highest court.

Meanwhile, the group has also sent a petition to the CJN, urging him to investigate the allegations that delays of appointment of Supreme Court Justices were politically motivated.

The group said it is making the demand following the revelations contained in the retirement speech delivered by Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad recently.

“Justice Muhammad’s assertions take on more troubling significance because they have not, till now and as far as we know, been denied or repudiated publicly, and this will lead many people to think they are true.

“This is why, in our respectful opinion, it is of utmost importance to interrogate those claims and determine whether they are meritless. Unless a credible, impartial and thorough investigation of his allegations are carried out, which results in a credible rejection of them, it will be difficult to erase the impressions that have formed in the minds of reasonable people to the contrary, particularly given that the Judiciary has not furnished any rebuttals of its own,” it said, adding that the result of the enquiry should be made public upon conclusion of investigations.