NDC: Uzodike Urges NJC To Restore Dignity Of Judiciary
Chief JoeMartin Uzodike, an elder statesman, has expressed worry over what he considered growing cases of questionable judgement and orders by the courts.
Uzodike, a Lawyer, expressed the concern while speaking in the recent judgment of a Lokoja High Court which revoked the order it earlier gave for the registration of National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Awka on Sunday.
He called on the National Judicial Commission to take a serious look at some recent pronouncements of some judges which not only negates principles of law but brought embarrassment to the system.
The former Commissioner for Information and Culture in Anambra said it was trite in law that no court revisits its own judgment unless there were new facts which could be presented at the appeal court that had the powers to order a retrial.
He said the Lokoja High Court judgment was not just a setback to the political process but it cast a slur on the image of the judicial system of the country.
He said the judgment in question took the Independent National Electoral Commission two months to effect and wondered why the appellant, which was not a political party, had to wake up six months later to challenge it in the same Court rather than court of appeal.
“The Lokoja High Court counter-order against itself on the registration of NDC after over six months is most troubling because from the point of making that order, the Judge has become Funtus Offiicio and cannot go back to it again.
“My worry is not because I am bothered about the fate of the NDC or political process but because I worship at the temple of justice where this abnormality is taking place.
“For reasons I do not know, our courts have continued to give judgment and orders that impugned the integrity, principles and image of the Court.
“I want to call on the National Judicial Commission to take deliberate steps to redeem the courts and restore public confidence by sanctioning judges whose verdicts bring public odium and ridicule to the system,” he said.
Uzodike said he was confident that the Order would not stand and urged the NDC to take legal steps to set them aside.
He said courts should be instruments for strengthening democracy and not stifling democratic choices and civil space.
“I am so sure it will not stand, in fact nothing has happened because the beneficiary so-called Order is not known in the political space and has no locus ab initio, so NDC should just take the necessary legal steps to set it aside,” he said.
