Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo: A Daniel Has Come To Judgment

A few weeks ago, the Hon. Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, delivered a landmark judgment in a suit instituted by the People’s Democratic Party seeking to sack the Governor of Ebonyi State, Engineer Dave Umahi, his deputy and 15 members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, for defecting to the All Progressives Congress. In his judgment, Justice Ekwo upheld the spirit of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and sacked the defectors.

At a time when courageous judges appear to be fast disappearing from the Nigerian judicial landscape, we must commend justice Ekwo for the forthright judgment and for bringing back the golden days of Nigerian judiciary when erudite judgments and activist judges was the order of the day.

For so long, our politicians have turned the constitution upside down and defected across party lines without recourse to the people whose mandates they hold in trust. Justice Ekwo’s judgment is, therefore, timely, as it has brought sanity to the political space. We commend the erudite jurist and urge him to continue in this path, irrespective of whose ox is gored.

We also call on the appellate courts, particularly the Supreme Court to uphold this judgment whenever the appeal gets to the apex Court. The Supreme Court must rise and return to the days where its precedents were clear and policy oriented.

We hope that some day soon, Justice Ekwo will be elevated to the appellate courts. Judges like this deserve a seat at the Supreme Court.

*Deji Adeyanjyu, LLB is the Convener of Concerned Nigerians and a socio-political commentator