Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi says judges must be above society in order to deliver justice equitably to the people.
Amaechi spoke on Friday while swearing-in a new High Court Judge, Justice Stanley Owajimam Benson at Government House, Port Harcourt.
He noted that besides being upright, judges are also sacred people because of the unique responsibility of administering justice in society.
“You have the powers of life and death. I don’t have that. So when you sit in that sacred place that you sit, you should observe, because that has to be the difference for you who are judges. You are quite different from all of us who are in this hall. We can be careless about what we say, but you cannot afford to be careless about what you say. No judge can be careless about what he says. You are a different species of human beings in any country,” Amaechi said.
The governor advised Justice Benson to jettison what had happened in the past and carry out his duties without bitterness.
Despite the delay in his appointment, Governor Amaechi noted that on reading Justice Benson’s petition and hearing a court judgment to that effect, he had already agreed in his mind to endorse his appointment.
Citing his example, Amaechi said, “Please while I congratulate you for being sworn-in as a Judge of the Rivers State High Court, I still plead with you in the name of Christ you and I worship that please you should divorce the pain. When I came back to Rivers State I was full of pain, but I remembered and kept it away from governance. You must forgive everybody and govern the state in a manner that is pleasing to God.”
In the same vein, President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Okey Wali SAN, has hailed the decision of the Rivers State Government in swearing-in the new justice.
He noted that Governor Amaechi has displayed high sense of rule of law by obeying the decision of the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC).
Wali charged Justice Benson to ensure he carries out his duties with zeal and fairness as expected of him by the society.
