NJC suspends 2 judges for failure to deliver judgement, age falsification

Two High Court judges have been recommended by the National Judicial Council for compulsory retirement over alleged age falsification and failure to deliver judgement for four years.

This was revealed on Friday in a statement by the NJC’s Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye, who identified the judges as Justice Francis Abosi, who is the Acting President, Imo State Customary Court of Appeal, and Justice Aliyu Musa Liman of Bauchi State High Court.

According to Oye, the pair had been placed on immediate suspension pending when the NJC’s recommendations would be approved by the respective state governors where the judges hail from.

Oye said these were part of the resolutions reached at the 91st meeting of the council held online on Wednesday and Thursday.

He said the council recommended the Acting President, Customary Court of Appeal, Imo State, Justice Abosi, for compulsory retirement for falsifying his date of birth from 1950 to 1958.

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Speaking further, Oye said that council asked Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State to deduct the salaries Abosi had earned for about the eight years period from November 2015 when he ought to have legitimately retired, to date from his retirement benefit.

He said, “Findings showed that he was supposed to have retired in November 2015 when he clocked the mandatory retirement age of 65 years.

“Council decided to recommend for his compulsory retirement to Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and to also deduct the salaries he had earned from November 2015 to date from his retirement benefit.”

He added that Justice Liman of the Bauchi State High Court was recommended to the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, for compulsory retirement for his failure to deliver judgement in suit No BA/100/2010, between Abubakar Isa and Sheik Tahir Usman Bauchi within the three months period stipulated by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He added, “Council viewed His Lordship’s failure to deliver judgement for nearly four years as misconduct, contrary to Section 292 (1) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended and Rules 1.3 and 3.7 of the 2016 Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

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