HURIWA celebrates Justice Ogwuegbu at 90

Civil advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, joined friends and families in rejoicing with Justice Emmanuel Ogwuegbu, a retired justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court on the occasion of his 90th birthday, describing him as humble, simple, unassuming, resilient and deeply religious.

Justice Ogwuegbu started as a magistrate, rose steadily through the ranks – the high courts and then to the Supreme Court and left footprints that would remain indelible in the sands of time.

He made outstanding contributions to the apex court and, in fact, Nigeria’s jurisprudence in general.

Eulogising the eminent Jurist, HURIWA in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, celebrates God’s grace over him and long years of service, with many achievements, especially in the judiciary.

According to HURIWA, Justice Ogwuegbu worked tirelessly behind the scene to enthrone justice in the highest court of the land.

“When he is not delivering the lead judgment, he is concurring or dissenting. In his lead judgment delivered on May 29, 1998, in a celebrated criminal case between Sunday Effiong (appellant) and the State (respondent), Justice Ogwuegbu showed the stuff he is made up of.

It said: “Also, agreeing with a seven-man panel of justices on Friday, April 5, 2002, in a case between the Attorney General of the Federation and the Attorney General of Abia State and 35 others over the derivation palaver, Justice Onwuegbu concurred with the decision of the lead judgment that the Federal Government should calculate the derivation based on the low water mark.

It was a dispute between Federal Government, on the one hand, and the eight littoral states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, and Rivers, on the other hand, as to the Southern (or seaward) boundary of each of these states.

Onwubiko prayed for continued good health and sound mind for the quintessential retired jurist, who bowed out of the Supreme Court gracefully on Friday, March 16, 2003, when he attained the statutory age of 70.