Appeal Court judgement: ‘Best thing is resignation’ – Senior lawyer, Maduabuchi tells Justice Lifu

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Oba Maduabuchi, has asked Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court to resign

He said the judge should be ashamed of still entering the court to deliver rulings.

 

This is following the Court of Appeal ruling on Tuesday that vacated the judgment that directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deregister the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and four other political parties accused of failing to meet constitutional requirements.

Maduabuchi noted that the Judiciary has left its job and Is now involving itself in partisan politics.

 

“That is bad for Nigeria’s democracy,” he said on Arise News.

DAILY POST reports that the panel berated Justice Lifu for disobeying an order it had made on May 22 directing him to stay proceedings in the case pending the outcome of an appeal by the parties.

It noted that even though the trial judge’s attention had been drawn to the order for a stay of proceedings, he intentionally flouted it and went ahead to deliver judgment.

It held that Justice Lifu’s action was “a form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court had previously held that a judge who acts in such a manner “is unfit for the bench, as the conduct amounts to judicial rascality”.

Reacting, Maduabuchi said the best thing for Lifu to do at this point is to resign, adding, “The judiciary has left its job, and is now involving itself in partisan politics. It is very obvious that there is a large measure of partisanship, where once a case is filed, it goes somewhere. We know what the result will be.

“The judiciary should be like Caesar’s wife, above board. So those of us who have spent nearly half a century doing this business, I look at my sons, my two sons who are lawyers, and I say, ‘What are you going to meet in the next five years when I would have retired?’

“How can I spend time preparing a case, putting four to five hours of hard work, and somebody, because he’s a puppet, they pull the strings here and there, you say something, and you are not ashamed?

“You listen to what the court of appeal, the higher court, is saying about you, I don’t know why, how anybody can say that about me, and I will eat, or I will sleep.

“There are things that should not be said about certain classes of people, like a judge that judges other people, and they are telling you that this is judicial impertinence. Very strong word, rascality, and not fit for the bench? That’s strong.

“Then how does that person come in again to upbraid anybody in the open court. Sit down and say you are deciding a case. What are you deciding?

“You’ve been told that you are not a fit and proper person to hear cases by a court higher than you. Therefore, so the best thing for you is to is to leave.”