Leadership NJC Indicts Ex-Justice Gummi For Misconduct By: Iorakpen Ishu-Josef on July 19, 2013 - 2:47am The National Judicial Council (NJC) has found the immediate past chief judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi, guilty of gross misconduct contrary to Rule 1(i) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers which would have led to his removal from office. The NJC, however, took cognisance of the fact that ex-Justice Gummi had already voluntarily retired from service and consequently decided there was no longer any point in recommending his removal from office. The council also cautioned Justice M. A. Onyetenu of the Federal High Court for granting an ex-parte order without hearing the pending motion on notice and applications in Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/236/2012 between Evangelist Charity O. Akah V. Alpaca Price Nigeria Ltd. This was a decision reached by the NJC at the end of its 63rd Meeting which took place in Abuja on July 17 and 18, 2013. A statement released by the NJC’s Acting Director (Information) Soji Oye, revealed that the council deliberated on the Report and recommendation of its Committee that investigated the petition forwarded to it by Nestello Gateway Group in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/486/10 against Hon. Justice Lawal Hassan Gummi, OFR, the former Chief Judge of High Court of FCT, Abuja. “At the end of deliberation, Council accepted the findings of its committee that Justice Gummi interfered with execution of the judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Jude Okeke of the FCT High Court, Abuja, in the suit between Nestello Gateway Group and Alhaji Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari, a former National Assembly member and the current governor of Zamfara State in which execution had already been levied in favour of the petitioner. Council found the interference by Justice Gummi in the execution of the judgement as most unethical and highly reprehensible. NJC warned that, henceforth, any similar misconduct by any judicial officer in the federation would attract severe sanctions. Meanwhile, the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) has debarred a lawyer, Mr. G.T. Ahembe, over his alleged infamous conduct in the law profession. The committee chaired by a former NBA president Joseph Daudu (SAN) found the lawyer culpabe of refusing to pay his client, Dr. Terlumun Numbeve, N4.5million he (Ahembe) recovered on his (Numbeve) behalf contratry to Rules 1, 23 and 55(1) of the Rules of Professional conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007. The panel also directed that the chief registrar of the Supreme Court to strike out Ahembe’s name from the list of legal practitioners forthwith.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 08:48:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015