CJN Orders Disciplinary Action Against Judge Over Criminal Summons Against APGA Guber Candidate
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, has directed the Judicial Service Committee, JSC, of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to initiate disciplinary action against a Judge of the Upper Area Court that issued criminal summons against Prof. Charles Soludo.
Soludo, who is the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the forthcoming election in Anambra State, is a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Gambo Garba, who presides over the Upper Area Court at Zuba, had on August 23, issued a direct criminal Summons against Soludo over a case of alleged perjury, corruption and false assets declaration that was filed against him by one Oliver Bitrus.
The litigant, in the Direct Criminal Complaint he filed pursuant to sections 88 and 89 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, had alleged that Soludo serially breached the Code of Conduct for Public Officers while he held office as Governor of the CBN, between May 29, 2004 and May 29, 2009.
The complainant, Oliver Bitrus, had alleged that Mr Soludo held the CBN governor’s office as a public officer flagrantly violating the Code of Conduct for public officers by buying property not attributable to his legitimate earnings.
Acting on the suit, the Upper Area Court judge issued criminal summons against Soludo who is currently a governorship aspirant in Anambra State.
However, the CJN, who had earlier warned judges against issuing orders that are capable of exposing the judiciary to public scrutiny, was said to have been embarrassed by action of the Upper Area Court which lacked jurisdiction to entertain such matters.
Top judiciary sources, who are privy to the interest CJN has shown in the matter but are not permitted to talk to the press about it, told newsmen pleading anonymity that the CJN was embarrassed by the judge’s conduct.
“The CJN has directed the Judicial Service Committee (JSC) of the FCT under the Chairmanship of the Acting Chief Judge, Hon. H. Y. Baba to immediately initiate disciplinary action against the Upper Area Court Judge who issued direct Criminal Summons against the Anambra State APGA governorship candidate Professor, Chukwuma Soludo, over alleged serial abuse of office and breach of Code of Conduct for public officers when he was the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria between 29 May 2004 – 29 May 2009,” a judiciary source wrote in a message shared with our reporter.
The CJN was said to have noted that the issues of “perjury, corruption and false assets declaration” raised in the complaints in respect of which the Upper Area Court judge issued the direct criminal summons against Mr Soludo were “completely outside the jurisdiction of the Upper Area Court.”
The CJN directed the Acting Chief Judge of the FCT High Court who heads the FCT Judiciary Service Commission to take disciplinary action against the judge and “submit his findings to the CJN within 21 days,” sources reliably informed our correspondent.
Justice Muhammed had met with the Chief Judges of the FCT, Rivers, Kebbi, Cross Rivers, Jigawa, Anambra and the Imo States on Monday, 6 September 2021, over similar acts of impunity of issuance of conflicting ex parte orders in some political cases.
Incidentally, some of the controversial orders had to do with Mr Soludo and the choice of the governorship candidate of his party, APGA, ahead of the forthcoming elections in Anambra State.
Newsmen reported that the CJN had after his meeting with the Chief Judges of the High Courts where the controversial orders emanated from directed some of them to admonish the judges in their jurisdictions on the danger of granting ex parte injunctions.
