Akpata berates Obaseki for leaving out high court designated judges during swearing- in

FORMER president of the Nigerian Bar Association ( NBA) and the candidate of the Labour Party in the Edo 2024 election, Olumide Akpata has criticised the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki for swearing in only five out of eight judges appointed by the National Judicial Council ( NJC) into the State High Court.

The governor recently sworn in five judges to the bench of Edo State High Court, and abandoned three of them.

But Akpata in a statement expressed his profound regrets that the three judges who are yet to be sworn in have endured grave injustice at the hands of the governor. His words: "For nearly a year, these eight legal professionals languished in unconscionable career limbo, with those previously in private practice suffering immense financial hardship through loss of earnings as they could not practice law as private practitioners having been recommended for appointment to the Bench.

“To subject any human being or public servant, let alone prospective guardians of justice, to such indignities is unacceptable.

“And now, by swearing in only five out of the eight recommended Judges without any reason or explanation, Governor Obaseki has further rubbed salt on the injury, riding roughshod over another arm of government in clear violation of the principles of separation of powers and in the process, leaving the other three judges and their families in a precarious dilemma."

He said the laughable defence proffered by the Edo State Commissioner of Information and Strategy that petitions existed against the recommended Judges is an outright falsehood that defies credulity.