By Eric Elezuo
Late Justices Edemekong Edemekong and Chukwu have been identified as among the dead and retired judges who made the list of Election Tribunal members of the Acting Chief Judge of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed.
Tanko Mohammed had over the weekend sworn in about 250 chairmen and members of the 2019 Election Tribunal.
Reacting to the list, Lawyers in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, raised the alarm about the inclusion of dead and retired judges in the list.
In the list was Justice Edemekong Edemekong whose name appeared as number 58 on the list. Edemekong had been dead since 2013.
Another, Justice Chukwu, from Ebonyi State and number 53 on the list, who was formerly of the Federal High Court, is also said to have been long dead.
Again, Justice Stephen Okon, a retired Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State and justice Okoyo Essang (number 56), a retired justice of the High Court in Akwa Ibom State, both made the list.
The lawyers expressed concerns that if such errors could be spotted at a glance on such a sensitive list and on the first official outing of the new acting CJN, then Nigeria may be heading towards a doom.
“If dead and retired men are to sit on our election petition tribunal, then the APC-led Federal Government is out to drown this country and we vehemently reject a list parading dead men as members of the tribunal,” they said.
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