By Dennis Agbo

Not many knew that the late eminent Jurist and a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Paul Kemdilim Nwokedi was a good dancer when he was a young man.

Nwokedi’s contemporary and leader of the Enugu Bar, Dr. E. E. J   Okereke made the revelation at the valedictory court session in honour of the late Judge at the auditorium of Enugu State High Court on Tuesday.

Son of late Judge, Mr. Uche Nwokedi (SAN) and other members of the family.

Okereke who said he is now 90 years, same age as the late Nwokedi, said that both of them were classmates. He awed the audience with his revelation, something that revealed the other side of the legal luminary people had come to honour.

“P. K. was a good dancer and he showed it each time we went to the night clubs when we were younger. His dance steps were amazing. I miss him. We were very close. He was a good friend and it was such that he approved my marriage to my wife. He once told me that “if you marry somebody I don’t like, visiting you may be a problem.”

Okereke went further to eulogise his late bosom friend and celebrated the fact that Nwokedi got to the peak of his career.

He said that people like the late Jurist should be immortalised, and not those he described as corrupt ones.

The valedictory court session was presided over by the Chief Judge of Enugu state,   Justice Ngozi Emehelu alongside the Chief Judge of Ebonyi state, Justice Alloy Nwankwo and a representative of the Chief Judge of Anambra state, Justice Peter Umeadi.

The late Justice P. K. Nwokedi was the Chief Judge of old Anambra state from 1985 to 1991. It was largely against this background that the combined session of the judiciaries of Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states honoured him

Among the jurists and lawyers who attended the valedictory session of P K as he was fondly called by his contemporaries were retired Supreme court Judge, Justice Chukwunne Ene, Justice Onyekachi Otisi, Justice Samuel Nwachukwu Okoye, and retired Chief Judge of Enugu state, Justice A. I. Umezuluike.

Others were Justice E. N. Nebo of Enugu customary court of Appeal, Charted Arbitrator Justice G. C. Nnamani, and Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN), among others from both the Bar and the Bench.

Justice Ally Nwankwo, Chief Judge of Ebonyi state (left), Enugu CJ Justice Ngozi Emehelu (centre) and representative of Anambra CJ Justice Umeadi.

The presiding Chief Judge, Justice Emehelu said she was sure Justice Nwokedi lived a fulfilled life at 90 and   had children who were also at the peak of their different careers such as his son, Uche Nwokedi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

Emehulu   recalled that prior to the 1974 appointment of P. K. Nwokedi as a High court Judge in the defunct East Central state, he was a brilliant lawyer and   practised across Nigeria between 1959 and 1974 when he made outstanding achievements for his name.

“His humility, sympathy and unlimited patience with his clients and his indomitable perseverance and eloquent presentation in court marked him out as a legal practitioner with distinction. His practice at the Bar was one characterised by complete devotion and that earned him successes as a legal practitioner.

“As a judicial officer, he climaxed his judicial career at the supreme court of Nigeria. His career was nothing short of devotion, hard work and excellence which were the bedrock of his character and career at the Supreme Court,” Emehelu said.

The Enugu State Chief judge cited different judicial   pronouncements of Justice Nwokedi which she said were still relevant   now as they were when they were delivered, adding that Nwokedi’s judgements would remain relevant even in decades to come.

According to her, as the pioneer Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Nwokedi demonstrated patriotism and belief in the rule of law, equity and justice.

“To the best of my knowledge, in the public offices held by the late Hon. Justice P.K. Nwokedi, he kept a clean record behind him and despite all the key positions he held at both federal and state levels, he was never swayed by the trappings of office. He took no interest in wealth acquisition, estate development, hustling for and clinging to political offices, he lived a quiet, decent and modest life to the very end,” Justice Emehelu eulogised.

In his own tribute, the Attorney General of Enugu state, Mr. Milletus Eze said “Nwokedi’s death invokes emotions of thanksgiving.   He was courageous, honest and his contributions can’t easily be erased from the sands of time. He left virtues worthy of emulation and I urge all those who held him in high esteem to imbibe his virtues,” Eze said.

The Enugu state chairman of Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Mr. Nnamdi Otukwu said that the coming together of the three states judiciaries was a statement that they were their brothers’ keepers .

Members of the Awka branch of NBA said that the late Justice Nwokedi was a great Jurist that everyone would like to take cues from, adding that they came not to mourn but to bury the great jurist.

The most senior SAN in Enugu state, Chief JHC Okolo said that he started hearing about Justice Nwokedi in the 50s when he was a student in Onitsha and the late Nwokedi’s father, a customary court president.

“He was among those who impacted ideas that we cherished later in life,’ he said.

Okolo narrated how Nwokedi helped him to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria when the National Judicial Council misplaced his updated file.

“Everyone shall take his or her own turn and so we thank God for his meritorious service,” Okolo said.

For the son of the late jurist, Uche Nwokedi (SAN), one of the greatest things he learnt from the rite of passage was that his father was a great dancer.   He said he never knew about that. “He was a wise man that in a very quiet way he would give you advice.

The other side of what I have taken away is that I didn’t know he knew how to dance, I didn’t know that part of him. At the appropriate time people will tell you who you are. I think there is lesson in humility.”

Uche said that despite his father being a successful judge,   he would rather remain at the Bar.