A group based in Rivers State, Integrity Friends for Truth and Peace Initiative, has protested certain actions of the President of the Appeal Court, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa to the Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed.
It specifically called on the NJC to sack Justice Bulkachuwa for setting up a three-man panel to handle the murder trial of one Ojukaye Flag Amachree in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The group alleged that in March 2015 in Abalama, Asari-Toru Local Government Area of the state, Amachree, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), allegedly shot and killed a member of the Peace Corps during the Rivers re-run elections.
In an open letter to the NJC, the Integrity Group, through its Executive Director, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, said that: “The Integrity Group, in keeping with its Justice and Citizens Watch Project, seeks an urgent intervention by the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria over an obvious act of mindless abuse of judicial powers, judicial corruption, unpopular demonstration of repetitive political interest in a murder trial in Rivers State by the President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, in concert with a select three-man panel of the Appellate Court headed by Hon. Justice Sidi Bage (Lagos Division), Hon Justice A. O Lokulo Sodipe (Ekiti Division) and Hon. Justice Adamu Jauro (Jos Division) to hear an appeal by a certain styled APC chieftain in Rivers State and former chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree.
“The said APC scribe, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, who is currently awaiting trial and remanded in the Port Harcourt prisons on a three-count charge of conspiracy and murder, having been accused of shooting one Smart Soberekon to death in Buguma, the headquarters of Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State during the April 11, 2015 general election.
“His lawyers led by one Sebastian Hon (SAN), filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt to challenge the decision of Justice Margaret Opara of the Rivers State High Court for not granting his client bail.”
The group said that it strongly believes that the three-man panel were on a political mission and recalled that the three judges were part of the panel of Appeal Court that nullified the various Rivers State legislative seats at the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal.
Wechie therefore urged the CJN to dissolve the panel and sack or suspend Justice Bulkachuwa from office and she should be probed over the matter.
He said that the Appeal Court judges originally assigned to preside over the Port Harcourt Division of the Appellate Court should be allowed to freely seat and entertain the matter and others before it.
In a related development, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has described as worrisome, a deliberate plot to politicise the judiciary for the purpose of hearing a bail application of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who was charged for alleged murder during the March 19, 2016 rerun elections in the state.
The governor reiterated his confidence in the judiciary to live above the political games which he said were being played by the agents of the APC.
Speaking at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Monday during the submission of report by the Justice Monima Danagogo Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Killings and other violent acts/ related matters that occurred during the March 19, 2016 rerun elections in Rivers State, Governor Wike decried the setting up of a special panel by the Court of Appeal basically to consider an appeal of an APC chieftain standing trial for murder.
The governor stated that he was shocked to read in National Newspapers about the unprecedented action by the Court of Appeal, pointing out that the action was detrimental to the rule of law and the maintenance of the law and order in the state.
He regretted that the APC through her agents had politicised crime.
He noted that the immediate past Commissioner of Police in Rivers State was queried and transferred because he charged the notorious APC chieftain to court for murder.
He said: “I just read in the papers today that they have set up a special panel to hear bail application for a murder case.
“We have had criminal matters in court for years, but for a murder case now, Rivers State has become a state where crime is committed and it is being politicised.
“See how politics has entered into crime. Where you belong to, matters. If you belong to a particular political party, a special panel will be set up for you. They believe that the person involved is an APC member from a local government where a rerun will take place.”
Speaking further, the governor said: “This is not funny. Then you ask yourself, if that happens, what are you telling the bereaved? Are you not telling them to do whatever they can to see that they get justice from wherever?
“We were concerned about the last rerun elections and we set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to look into it to know what happened. Assuming that recommendations have been made for their prosecutions, they will take measures to frustrate such prosecutions”.
He said that he had the political will to implement the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
Earlier in his remarks, Justice Monima Danagogo stated that the report was in four volumes for the implementation of the state government.
