By Anayo Okoli
Umuahia—ABIA State branch of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has dragged the state’s Judicial Service Commission, JSC, to court over alleged illegal appointment of magistrates in the state.
The four branches that make up Abia NBA that instituted the case are praying the court to nullify the appointments.

The commission had in July 2010 appointed 22 magistrates to beef up the lower bench, but the exercise was said to have ended up in controversy as the result of the interview was never made public.

“Successful” candidates were allegedly named and sworn-in by the JSC, despite protests from the NBA.

Angered by the exercise, the NBA in a suit filed by four of its members, including Amanze Chioma, chairman Umuahia Bar; Uche S. Awa, chairman Aba Bar; C.C. Ajagba, chairman, Isiala Ngwa branch and Udo Uduma, Ohafia branch chairman, is asking the court to declare that the defendants jointly and severally have no right, powers or privileges to appoint magistrates without due process.

In the Suit, HU/133/2010, dated September 2, 2010, Abia NBA prayed the court to declare that the appointment of the 22 new magistrates, who were also joined as defendants, was illegal because, according to body, it violated the Magistrate Court Law Cap 120 Laws of Abia State.

Abia NBA claimed that the “purported appointment was done without regard to due process, practical experience, years of practice, performance at interview conducted, comment of the bar on the suitability of the persons purportedly appointed and/or qualification of the persons appointed.”

The lawyers also claimed “that the Magistracy has been flooded and over-burdened with legal dead woods, morons and sycophants lacking the requisite experience in the practice of law and who were appointed on basis of ‘scratch-my-back-and- I -scratch -your -back’; godfatherism and nepotism, such that if you do not have any of 2nd – 4th defendants or any political heavy weights in government, you cannot be appointed.

“Unfortunately for the judiciary in Abia State, most of the judges are picked/appointed from the Magistracy with the possibility of these unqualified appointees being appointed judges in the nearest future, thereby compounding the already prostrate problems of efficient justice administration to our detriment and prejudice and that of our members and just, speedy, and efficient justice delivery in the state.”

According to Mr. Emenike Azubuike, who spoke to newsmen on the issue, the defendants are “recalcitrant policy makers and willful violators in using the result of their own widely published/conducted interview in appointments of magistrates on July 13, 2010 and August 9, 2010, respectively”.

He accused the eight-man interview panel of merely sharing the appointments and filled the positions with their relatives and cronies without publicizing the results of the interviews involving over 400 lawyers who applied.