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Ukeje may be taken to
NJC over fuel tax ruling
From: Rotimi Fadeyi
Senior
Correspondent, Abuja
Chief Judge of the
Federal High Court Justice Roseline Ukeje may be taken to the National Judicial
Council (NJC) for alleged professional misconduct and her controversial September
21 judgment on the fuel tax matter.
Already, plans by the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to forward a petition to the NJC are in the
pipeline.
Ukeje, by her position
as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court is a member of the NJC.
Labour wants the
council to investigate the issue surrounding her verdict on the case instituted
by the government against the NLC over its decision to embark on strike to
protest the imposition of the N1.50 fuel tax.
A source close to the
NLC said on Thursday in Abuja that the decision to take Ukeje to the NJC, the
body responsible for the appointment and discipline of judges and judicial
officers, is to allow the council to intervene and make appropriate
recommendations.
According to the
source, Ukeje in her judgment went into issues that were not presented before
her and made pronouncements on them, one of which was the legality of the
office of the NLC president
He explained that the
government had approached the court through a motion ex-parte (urgent
application) on June 4 asking it to stop the NLC from calling out workers to
protest the fuel tax and increase in the prices of petroleum products.
The motion was argued
by counsel to the government before Justice Stephen Jonah Adah sitting in court
2 of the Federal High Court.
The source added that
the hope of the government to secure the order without the knowledge of the NLC
was dashed when Adah declined to grant the request.
Rather, he directed
that Labour be put on notice to allow for a fair hearing before a decision
could be taken on the case, and adjourned it to June 8.
However, before this
date, the source claimed that Ukeje, who was attending a conference in Canada,
was contacted by the government to come and take up the case.
He alleged that she
flew back to the country and thereafter assigned the case to herself and gave
the judgment on September 21.
The ruling is now a
subject of appeal before the Court of Appeal. In it, the NLC is challenging the
judgment and wants the appellate court to void it.
Last year, the hammer
of the NJC fell on Justice Wilson Egbo Egbo, a judge of the Federal High Court
in Abuja, when he was retired for giving a controversial order that Anambra
State Governor Chris Ngige be removed from office.
The council also
recommended the dismissal of Justice Stanley Nnaji of the Enugu High Court for
assuming jurisdiction over a matter involving Ngige, which occurred in another
state, Anambra.
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