BY ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA — GOVERNOR Theodore Orji of Abia State has sworn-in Justice Nnenna Chioma Oti as the substantive Chief Judge of the state.

The swearing-in of the judge came four years after the state had been without a  substantive Chief Judge.

Orji also swore-in two new state judges, namely Justice Innocent Ahunanya Nwabuogu and Justice Eleazar Onyekachi Enwereji.

Swearing-in the new Chief Judge, Governor Orji recalled that since December 2010 when the last substantive Chief Judge, Justice Imo retired, there had been no substantive chief judge in the state.

The governor said during the period, he received several calls from people of the state urging him to appoint a new Chief Judge, unaware that such an appointment  was not within his capacity.

“The state judicial commission according to the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria nominated her and sent her name to the Nigeria Judicial Commission, which approved her before I sent her name to the state House of Assembly