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5 Judiciary Staff Workers Suspended Without Pay for Indicting
Chief Judge of Corruption in Abia State

Since November 2003, five staff of the Abia State Judiciary have remained on suspension from work without pay. Their suspension is at the instance of the Abia State Judicial Service Commission, headed by the Chief Judge of Abia State.

These five workers were suspended following a sustained crusade they have been waging against the Chief Judge of the Abia State Hon. Justice K.O. Amah, against whom they have alleged serious acts of judicial corruption from 2002. They first made allegations against the Chief Judge, Amah to the National Judicial Council for the misuse of the Judiciary's funds, and financial sleaze. See full story in 2nd edition of the Justice Observatory Journal . Shortly before this time, the Judiciary's internal auditor, Mrs. Rose Okiyih, (one of the 5 Judiciary staff) had raised alarm about suspect financial procedures and accounting going on within the Judiciary.

The NJC had appointed a panel headed by former Supreme Court Justice, Hon. Justice Owolabi Kolawole, OFR, to investigate the allegations. The panel found that the Chief Judge of Abia State had improperly paid funds belonging to the Judiciary into a fixed deposit account, and concluded that this act of Hon. Justice Amah was “improper or wrong behaviour and therefore amounted to misconduct” even though it found no evidence of “loss of funds.” The NJC accepted the Panel's recommendation that Hon. Justice Amah be “reprimanded only for misbehaviour because there was no loss of funds”

Next, in an “S.O.S” dated 27 July 2003, CRAN petitioned the Abia State House of Assembly, detailing what it called “Various Acts of Misconduct, Incompetence, Judicial Dishonesty, Abuse of Power etc by the Chief Judge …” and “the Urgent Need to Remove him.” The memorandum alleged escalating frauds in Justice Amah's administration, profligate contract awards, the use of personal proxies to collect and execute contracts, the abuse of the contract award process, the overarching influence of the CJ in contract award procedures and decisions, illicit personal aggrandizement, incompetence, indolence and un-productivity, age-falsification, abuses of office, misuse of office and official prerogative, vindictive policy-making, abuse of the judicial process and contempt for the rule of law. CRAN called for a public inquiry into their allegations.

After going through the evidence received, the Abia State House of Assembly adopted a report dated 12th Nov. 2003 by its Judiciary Committee which investigated the petition indicting Hon. Justice K.O. Amah for massive and widespread corruption, fraud, malice, indolence and abuse of office. The Committee remarked that “K.O. Amah has desecrated the temple of justice and should not remain there any longer” and that “in the light of the proven facts above that the CJ has been most reckless and corrupt and grossly mis-conducted himself in the control, management and spending of the funds of the High Court of Abia State, …”. On the allegation of incompetence, the House observed that: “[v]ery importantly the CJ has lost the confidence and control of all the stakeholders in the administration of justice which has led to strike by Registrars and other staff, strike by Magistrates for 6 months, boycott of Courts by Lawyers for 4 months, and resolution by Honourable Judges protesting the happenings in the Judiciary … as well as general discontent amongst all these Stakeholders in the Judiciary.”

While proceedings were taking place at the Abia House of Assembly, the Judicial Service Commission, headed by the Chief Judge, Hon. Justice K.O. Amah suspended the CRAN activists without pay, in November 2003. The suspension letter was not clear on the reasons for the suspension, but the (then) Chief Registrar of the Abia High Court, told Access to Justice, in an interview, that the activists were suspended because they did not route their petition to the Abia House through his office, which under civil service rules, they should have done. The Abia State House of Assembly, on being informed of the suspension, by Resolution, asked the Chief Judge/Judicial Service Commission to reverse it, but was rebuffed. In its (already referred to) report, the Assembly's Judiciary Committee noted that Chief Judge Amah grossly abused his office by the suspension. The report noted: “Justice K.O. Amah, arrogantly feeling like the cat with nine lives, but overbloated with corruption, fraud, scandal and sacrilege, most contemptuously railroaded the JSC (Judicial Service Commission) into purporting to have suspended staff of the Judiciary for daring to expose his continued corrupt tendencies to the House of Assembly. This he did in spite of warnings from the committee.”

Access to Justice has made representations on the case of these workers, but these has been no change in their situation .