Human rights activist and president of One Love Foundation, Chief Dr Patrick Osagie Eholor has congratulated the five judges sworn in by the Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki.
Recall that for the past 11 months, 8 judges despite being cleared by the Nigerian Judicial Council NJC, Edo State Judicial Service Commision, and the Nigerian Bar Association NBA, have been on the waiting list to be sworn in, a situation many allege was politically motivated.
Eholor, who fought vehemently for the judges to be sworn in, has said that the action is a huge success for the judiciary and victory for the common man who has been denied justice by Governor Godwin Obaseki in the absence of enough justices in the state.
Also speaking on the matter, he said “I am calling on the Chief Justice of Edo State, the Nigerian Bar Association, the President of Nigerian Bar Association, and all other lawyers to realize that silence is not the best when the chicken is being roasted in the presence of the hawk. You forget that you all have the same feathers.
You must unite and all work together to protect the independence and the integrity of the Judiciary.
I am also working on a bill for the national assembly so that such a thing that happened in the past where Godwin Obaseki refused to swear in the 14 House of Assembly members never happens again. There should be a provision, a law that if, after a certain period of time, if the governors refuse to swear in members of the House of Assembly, the Supreme Court should do it.
Something similar has happened now and these judges have been denied 11 months of their time. The Governor has no rights. There was a probationary period of a year when the NJC cleared these judges. So, the Governor cannot be more powerful than the judges, because we have 3 arms of government.
Lastly, as a matter of urgency, Godwin Obaseki should swear in the remaining 3 judges, because I find this to be discrinmination, because they were not in support of your party, because they are not members of your PDP.
You are being selective in your judgement and I am going to look for any provision under the law to take you to court to make sure that these three judges denied of their renumeration, of their salary.
I will make sure they are sworn in and that the governor apologizes for his actions. I do not know these people, but I am a humanist and I can feel what they feel, I am allergic to injustice, and will fight this case all the way to the Supreme Court until these three are sworn in. Not only for the judges, also for the inmates that have been denied justice.
Our prison facilities are overcrowded due to lack of judges to give them justice. Some of the judges deal with over 40 cases in a day, which is way too much to deal with in a day. So we will be dealing with a miscarriage of justice if we don’t do this properly.
Let me thank Senior Advocate Oluwole Afolabi and other distinguished SANS, lawyers and some PDP members, Labour Party members, APC members and other political party members, statesmen who also saw this injustice and wanted to right the wrong of Godwin Obaseki, who supported my outcry to find justice for these judges. I salute them.
If it wasn’t for them, this would not have been possible. So I Congratulate them as I have congratulated the 5 sworn in judges. I also urge them to continue to press to ensure that justice is done for the other three judges they witchhunted because they are not related to PDP.
I also want to thank the guber candidates, Asuen Ighodalo and the SSG, Barr Osarodion Ogie. I am also aware that two of you were instrumental to make this possible.