NJC throws out petition against tribunal judge

A panel set up by the National Judicial Council (NJC) has dismissed the petition from Senator Smart Adeyemi against Justice Akon Ikpeme of the Cross River State judiciary. She was the tribunal judge who headed the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in 2015 and was accused of compromise by the petitioners. […]

A panel set up by the National Judicial Council (NJC) has dismissed the petition from Senator Smart Adeyemi against Justice Akon Ikpeme of the Cross River State judiciary.

She was the tribunal judge who headed the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in 2015 and was accused of compromise by the petitioners.

Explaining the dismissal of the petition by NJC to news men in Calabar, Ntufam Mba Ekpezu Ukweni (SAN), said Justice Ikpeme was accused of collecting bribe by Senator Adeyemi and others but that the council exonerated her of the accusation.

Mba Ukweni said not all justices in Nigeria are corrupt as some are still clean to do their legitimate work.

The council at its meeting held on April 18, 2019, after deliberating on the report of the committee, accepted the findings of the panel and dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

Ukweni SAN explained that he was among the team of lawyers that defended Justice Ikpeme before a three-man panel set up by the NJC.

According to him, “the three-man panel appointed by NJC to investigate the complaints, meticulously investigated the complaints and found them to be false and unfounded”, adding that the NJC concluded that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations.