Another judge was instead nominated to replace Justice Ikpeme as acting chief judge, an action lawyers have criticised.
The Cross River State Government is enmeshed in controversy over the appointment of a substantive chief judge of the state.
Akwa Ibom was created out of Cross River on September 23, 1987, by the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida. “Following the confusion, the House after heated debate rejected both reports and a committee of the whole house ultimately rejected her confirmation through a voice vote, a situation for which some members condemned the presentation of two reports,” the newspaper reported.
“This absurdity and naked injustice and prejudice must not be allowed to stand,” the NBA President, Paul Usoro, said in a statement Tuesday. “The NJC, in December 2019, interviewed both candidates, found them respectively suitable for the position but recommended Ikpeme J for appointment as the Chief Judge, being the most senior judge and not having any negative report howsoever.
“It is heart-breaking to note that at this point of our struggle to stop all forms of discrimination in our society, we will be awakened to such discrimination on grounds of ethnicity and political zoning,” the group said.The travails of Mrs Ikpeme has brought to the fore, once again, the perennial conflict between citizenship and ‘indigenship’ in Nigeria.
“Are they, the Governor and the House of Assembly men, upholding the sacred provisions of that Constitution by so brazenly discriminating against Ikpeme J in the appointment of the CRS Chief Judge?”“To the best of our knowledge, Ikpeme J had security clearance from the Department of State Security, DSS, the body saddled with handling security issues and appropriately screening candidates for judicial appointments – before her name was sent to the NJC by the CRS Government as the preferred...
“The CRS Judiciary is in any case not in a position to determine disputes, if any, between CRS and AKS the exclusive jurisdiction thereon belonging as it does, constitutionally, to the Supreme Court.
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