Tension in Enugu as concerned citizens petition Chief Justice of Nigeria

11thth October, 2016


OPEN LETTER TO HOUNORABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF NIGERIA AND NJC ON POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ON ENUGU GOVERNORSHIP AND OTHER ELECTION PETITIONS BEFORE IT;

PARTIES INVOLVED: JUSTICE CENTUS CHIMA NWEZE AND JUSTICE RAPHAEL CHIKWE AGBO

We, the concerned citizens of Enugu do hereby state our candid observations on how a reasonable Enugu person views the ruling delivered by Hon. Justice Centus Chima Nweze on or about January 24th, 2016 in a Motion brought by Senator Ayogu Eze against the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of the PDP. Our concern is not only that Justice Nweze was a member of the panel of Justices constituted by your highly respected office to hear the case, but he was conspicuously seen to have delivered the ruling with strong and needless colorful language demonstrating probable intimate involvement with the case.

Both Justice C.C.  Nweze, who headed the Panel at the Supreme Court and Justice Raphael Chikwe Agbo of the Appeal Court, who purportedly influenced the case at The Court of Appeal are not only from the same clan as Gov. Ugwuanyi but also are direct beneficiaries of Governor Ugwuanyi’s Choice appointments during and after the case at Appeals Court and current cases in Supreme Court.

As The Honourable CJN is aware, there are still ongoing cases before your Honorable Court involving the battle for the rightful Governor of Enugu State. While the cases were ongoing from the Appeal Court to the Supreme Court, various appointments were made by one of the litigants (Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi) that may appear to be highly suspicious, a probable conflict of interest and obvious appearance of obstruction of justice.

We kindly ask The Honourable CJN to peruse these verifiable undermentioned appointments in Enugu State by Gov. Ugwuanyi to buttress our points:

1.     1.  The appointment of Prof. Augustine Uchechukwu Nweze as the Rector of the State-owned Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu (June 10, 2016). Prof. Nweze is a sibling of Justice Centus Nweze of the Supreme Court.

2.      2. The Promotion of Mrs. Nweze as Deputy Chief Registrar of the Enugu State Customary Court of Appeal (2016), and she is also alleged to be penciled down as a Judge of the State High Court.  Mrs. Nweze is the wife/spouse of Justice Centus Nweze of the Supreme Court.
It is worthy to note Sir, that Justice Centus Nweze and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi are not only from Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, they are also widely known to have close family ties and are possibly maternal cousins.

In a related and similar development, the following appointments were made in favor of the wife/spouse and sibling of Justice Raphael Chikwe Agbo of the Appeal Court:

1.       1.   The Appointment of Mrs. Mabel Agbo as The Special Advisor to Governor Ugwuanyi on Special Duties/MDG. Mrs. Agbo is the spouse of Justice Raphael Chikwe Agbo of the Appeals Court. Her Office awarded MDG contracts worth N1.6 Billion (One Billion, Six Hundred Million Naira).

2.      2.  The Appointment of Mrs. Rose Ngozi Chiama as the Permanent Secretary and Acting Chairman of the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ESUBEB) in 2016. Mrs. Chiama is a sibling of Justice Raphael Chikwe Agbo of the Federal Court of Appeal. The Statutory and Tenured ESUBEB Board was illegal dissolved to pave way for Mrs. Chiama. While she was Permanent Secretary/Acting Chairman, Her Office unilaterally awarded UBEC Contracts worth the total sum of N3 Billion (Three Billion Naira)

Based on all these above verifiable pattern and observations/facts, it is natural that human beings, being who they are, will be compelled to encounter conflicts of interests if exposed to situation of above nature and magnitude, and that Justice C.C. Nweze cannot differ in such appearance of conflict of interest.

As a matter of judicial ethics and common sense, Justice C.C. Nweze should have been fair to The CJN, the Judiciary and the good people of Enugu State by recusing (disqualifying) himself from the case rather than proudly reading out what an average local sees as being predetermined due to his closeness to his town’s man and/or relative: Governor Ugwuanyi.

We are helplessly using this medium to beg the CJN to look at the correctness of what is in our heads and the head of any right thinking local whose understanding of logic is not at par with the Learned Justices and if what we are saying makes meaning, we beg that the Honourable CJN should set up a small unit in his office that would henceforth vet the process of constituting Panels with particular reference to State of origin of political cases allotted to any panel that are bound to be threatened with bias or favoritism because judges are human with tendency to love or hate, to like or dislike, to have sympathy or to be unsympathetic.

We are confident that the Honourable CJN will passionately look at our observations on merit and fine tune the process of constituting Panel of Justices particularly election cases from Enugu State that may affect the office of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi or his test group.


Yours Sincerely,


Chief Ikenna Ogbu
For:
Concerned Citizens of Enugu