There must be few, if there are, Chief Judges who can endure the velocity of a tirade of muddy spattering on their dignity or status as Hon. Justice K.O. Amah would, and still show no visible signs of stress. If the attacks were coming from private or individual flanks alone, the battleground would have looked familiar, perhaps measurably conventional; the onslaught this time, is coming from all angles. Justice K.O. Amah, Chief Judge of Abia State has traded tackles with Abia State House of Assembly, all the Bar Association Branches in Abia, Abia State Magistrates, and, more ferociously, with those within his own courtyard – court workers under the aegis of the Court Registrars Association of Nigeria (CRAN). His allies have been few, but strong, comprising mostly, perhaps, of the Executive Governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu.

Appointed Chief Judge in 1998, Hon. Justice K.O Amah shot past five more senior judges to the apex position. It is not clear why Justice Amah won the office, for it did not appear that his antecedents were particularly remarkable; howbeit, managing the office of Chief Judge, coveted as it is, is clearly one function Hon. Justice Amah did not come well-equipped for, and, till this time, has not managed to nurture. Virtually all the players in the justice sector – court staff, the bar, most of his brother judges, now consider him the most important burden in Abia's justice environment. Today, in nearly ten lawsuits past or present, Justice K.O. Amah is pitched either as plaintiff or defendant against entities that include the House of Assembly, the Court Registrars Association of Nigeria (CRAN), Abia State Branch, activist lawyers, executive officers of CRAN, and ex-staff of the Judicial Service Commission.

“More alarming in the disclosure in Exhibits 63- 63A1-A47 show that over N9,791,278.00 was given out either by cheque or cash in the name of no disclosed persons. The CJ alone collected over N8,603,550.00 as monthly allowance, meetings and workshops while the CR collected about N4,000,000.00 as monthly allowance, advance, etc. All these expenses were without any single Voucher raised - Report of the Abia State House of Assembly Committee on the Judiciary and Administration of Justice”

Petitions against him, indicting him for a systematic pattern of corruption and gross ineptitude, have been taken to various oversight institutions: in all the institutions where these petitions have been treated, the allegations against him have been sustained, either nearly wholly, or in part. Hon. Justice Amah will go down as perhaps the most documented case of malfeasance in Nigerian judicial history, and perhaps too as the most solution-defiant. He has survived, not un-bruised though, probes by the NJC, Audits set up by the State Government, the House of Assembly's inquiry, petitions against him to the ICPC (which did not get investigated), and hopes to survive, as well, lawsuits seeking declarations that he is unfit for his office. He has not survived because he is guiltless; on the contrary, many of the reports fault him grievously, in ways that some might say, will make a common felon blush: Justice K.O. Amah is surviving because he is usingthe justice system to his advantage, and also, because he has had the warm indulgence of those who exercise influence over his fate. The Justice Committee of the Abia State House of Assembly indeed said he likened himself to “a cat with nine lives”.

Access to Justice officers paid a number of visits to Abia to investigate the developments there. And while there talked to a number of people, including the Chairman of the Umuahia Bar, Chief Uchendu, the embattled Chief Registrar of the High Court, Mr. E.U. Onuoha, the bruised-but-unbowed President of the Court Registrars' Association of Nigeria, Sir A.I. Nwaonumah, and the Attorney-General of the State, Mr. Awa Kalu, SAN. Spirited efforts to talk with the principal character in the imbroglio, Hon. Justice Amah failed: he just would not grant an interview and threatened to hold anyone who wrote anything against him in contempt, because according to him, there were pending lawsuits in court.

The Prologue: The Plot Sets with a Probe
In 2002, Court Registrars' Association of Nigeria, Abia State Branch, alongside the (now retired) President of the Customary Court of Appeal, Abia State, Hon. Justice M.N. Mba filed two separate petitions against Hon. Justice K.O. Amah (hereafter the CJ) to the National Judicial Council (NJC). The petition signed by CRAN officials G.I. Ezindu and L.C. Onuoha, Secretary and Public Relations Officer, respectively, and titled “official misconduct/fraudulent activities” alleged that the CJ underpaid staff based on approved wage minimums by the NJC, and was not accounting for the unexpended parts; that the CJ did not disburse monies meant for car loans, and those meant for sporting activities; that the CJ paid, and later recovered monies meant for leave allowances without reflecting the returns in the departmental accounts, and paid himself furniture allowance while living in government quarters . Just before the NJC's investigation, the Judiciary's internal auditor, Mrs. Rose Okiyih, had raised Audit alarm about suspect financial procedures and accounting going on within the Judiciary. Although Justice Amah reportedly commissioned Mrs. Okiyih, to audit the Judiciary's account, by the time Rose Okiyih finished the exercise, Hon. Justice Amah was both stunned and stung.

“There can be no greater evidence of loss of dignity by the Chief Judge, than the plethora of litigations pending against him by several stakeholders and by him against several stakeholders as a cover to continuanceto perpetuate fraud and ause of office. It is rather ridiculous that Justice K.OAmah has become a “professional defendant” even in his own court. This status can certainly not be convenient for effective and efficient discharge of his duties” - Report of the Abia State House of Assembly Committee on the Judiciary and Administration of Justice

The NJC appointed a panel headed by former Court of Appeal Judge, Hon. Justice Owolabi Kolawole, OFR, to investigate the allegations. The panel found that “… the sum of N97,060,000 being judiciary funds (made up of workers salaries) had been paid into a fixed deposit account … with the knowledge and consent of the Respondent, Hon. Justice K.O. Amah, contrary to financial regulations. Similarly it was found that some surplus fund from the loan of N19 million granted by the State Government was put on fixed deposit.” The Panel stated however, that there was no “… evidence of loss of fund” and concluded that the act of Hon. Justice Amah was “improper or wrong behaviour and therefore amounted to misconduct.” The NJC accepted the Panel's recommendation that Hon. Justice Amah be “reprimanded only for misbehaviour because there was no loss of funds.”

Instead the committee received in evidence Exhibits 93 and 94 the Chief Judge's handwritten letters wherein he awarded contracts for over Three Million Naira for the construction of his home and Court hall - Report of the Abia State House of Assembly Committee on the Judiciary and Administration of Justice

But the NJC also passed comments on the practice of paying Hon. Justice K.O. Amah's wife from the Judiciary's funds for purely ceremonial functions, noting that the payments, though authorized by the Governor, was “indiscreet.” The NJC ultimately decided to “reprimand” Hon. Justice Amah, and “… to warn you against future occurrence of such acts.”