Abia Logjam: CJN queries FHC CJ over conflicting rulings

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INDICATIONS emerged at the weekend that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed has queried the Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Ndahi Auta, over conflicting judgements his court delivered on the Abia State governorship tussle on Friday. A highly placed judiciary source yesterday told Nigeria Pilot that the CJN is bitter with the CJ of the Federal High Court for not assigning all cases relating to the Abia State governorship tussle to one judge to handle it; rather he chose to assign a different one to another Federal High Court judge in Owerri to handle the matter, thereby creating confusion and embarrassment to the Nigerian judiciary. According to the source, “The CJN had scolded Justice Auta on the PDP crises when he deliberately assigned cases to judges in Port Harcourt and Lagos, creating problem for the party. After apologising to the CJN, he repeated the same thing again. There is a query waiting for him; that is the reason why the former CJN, Justice Aloma Muktar refused to see Justice Auta eye-to-eye throughout her stay as CJN because of this type of behavior, “ the source said There seems to be no end in sight to the ongoing controversies surrounding the Abia State gubernatorial seat as three courts of competent jurisdiction gave conflicting judgments in one day. The three courts that heard the cases are the Owerri Division of the Appeal Court, the Federal High Court, Abuja, and another High Court in Owerri, the Imo State capital. At the Federal High Court, Abuja, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had through his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), filed an application before Justice Okon Abang praying for a stay of execution on the judgement seeking to remove him as the governor of Abia State.
The second suit was the …Read More

Source:: Nigerian Pilot