Ndoma-Egba Backs Justice Ikpeme As Chief Judge Of Cross River
…Decries Ensuing Politicization By House Of Assembly
Former Senate leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), has decried the non-appointment of the chief judge of Cross River for over 10 months now.
For about 10 months running, the state has remained without a substantive chief judge since the retirement of Justice Michael Edem.
Within this period, the state has had two acting chief judge including Justice Akon Ikpeme and Justice Maurice Eneji. Justice Enejj had acted for six months and since his tenure expired on September 2, the state has not appointed a substantive judge, thereby leaving the position vacant.
The NJC had sent the name of Justice Akon Ikpeme twice for confirmation as chief judge and the State House of Assembly has rejected her name twice ostensibly for being a security risk, pointing out that she is from Akwa Ibom State.
READ ALSO: Uproar As C’River Assembly Again Rejects Justice Ikpeme as Chief Judge
Speaking at a special court session in honour of a late lawyer, Mr Oriri Ekom Oriri, and presided over by Justice Ayade Emmanuel Ayade, Ndoma-Egba noted that the judiciary in the state was passing through the most needless and useless crisis of succession.
The former chairman of NDDC maintained that it was high time the state had simply done the right to get out of this quagmire.
According to him, “justice, fairness and correctness are without colour, they are unisex and are without tribe or ethnic colouration.
“Therefore to ethnicize justice in any way, especially by us lawyers, is to betray and belittle our calling as lawyers should not sell themselves to politicians including myself.
“If they (lawyers) want to zone, they should abandon the practice and join us politicians in the trenches. Today there is no leadership in the judiciary of Cross River State as a result of which decisions cannot be taken and new cases cannot be assigned.
“This, of course, will negatively impact on the economy of lawyers and their professional growth all because the-powers-that-be insist on their personal choices against the clear provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He bemoaned that judiciary that was the pride of the nation, and produced eminent jurists including Sir Darnley Alexandar, a West Indian, as chief justice (as they were then called), Anijah Obi (an Igbo man) as solicitor general and Atakora Amoo (a Ghanaian) as director, Civil Litigation, cannot today have a chief judge.
The legal luminary added that the state has also produced the likes of Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, Dr Okoi Arikpo SAN, Louis Edet, Chief Effiom Ekong, SAN, Kanu Agabi, SAN, Dr Matthew Mbu, Justice Edem Koofreh, Margaret Ekpo and Dan Archibong.
He lamented that a woman who spent all her life in Calabar and her working life with the government of Cross River State, married to a prominent Efik, whose children are Efik, simply because she is from Akwa Ibom State, she cannot be a chief judge.
“Why in God’s name are we retreating from the world to a closet, yet we claim to be promoting tourism. I do not pray that this should be.”
He called on Governor Ben Ayade to do the right thing so that the state can move on, insisting that now is the auspicious time to respect the sanctity of marriage and protect the family which is the foundation of the society.
On the deceased, he said, “Orion’s remains lying before us should remind all of us of our mortality”, adding that “Oriri’s horizontal fate today is a fate that awaits us all for every mortal shall taste death, when or how we know not”.
From Etim Bassey, Calabar
