Ndoma-Egba Hits C’River Govt Over Cheif Judge appointment

With the current stalemate between the Cross River government and National Judicial Council (NJC) over appointment of substantive Chief Judge for the state yet to be resolved, former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, has described the lingering controversy as ‘needless and useless,’ saying the reasons given by the Calabar-based administration for rejecting Justice Akon Ikpeme, were strange.

In a chat with Journalists in Calabar at the weekend, the former Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, said the Judiciary and indeed all court processes in the state could be death within the next few months if the stalemate is not halted, and therefore appealed to those who have the ears of Gov Ben Ayade to help talk to him to bring the controversy to an end.


Recall that for about 10 months now, the state has remained without a substantive Chief Judge since the retirement of Justice Michael Edem. The State government, supported by the House of Assembly, is believed to prefer a junior judge, Justice Maurice Eneji, over Justice Akon Ikpeme, said to be the most senior, on grounds that Ikpeme is a security risk to the state as she is from a sister state, Akwa Ibom, but married to a Cross Riverian

The National Judicial Council (NJC) has been insisting on Ikpeme based on what they called order of seniority. The tenure of Justice Eneji, who presided over the State Judiciary on acting capacity twice (6 months) ended on September 2, 2020. Before Eneji, Ikpeme had acted for three months



While warning against ethnicizing the Judiciary in any way, Ndoma Egba called on Gov Ben Ayade to swear in Justice Ikpeme as Chief Judge, saying the issue of seniority in judiciary was not to be debated.

“I have never heard that there was zoning in the Judiciary. You cannot jump the queue in the legal profession because it is more about seniority. The issue of seniority is not debatable, it is how the profession is structured, “he stated, and also found fault with the rejection of Ikpeme on the basis of where she comes from.

He said: “Sir Darnley Alexandar, a West Indian, was Chief Justice (as they were then called) of the then South Eastern state. Justice Udo Udoma was Chief Judge in Uganda, our own Okoi Itam was Chief Justice in Gambia. How then should a lady, who spent all her life in Calabar and her working life with the government of Cross River State, married to a prominent Efik whose children are Efiks, a Cross River by marriage, not be Chief Judge because she is from Akwa Ibom State by birth?”

He enumerated the consequences of allowing the controversy to remain to include inability of the judiciary to assign new cases, explaining, “with this scenario, the litigant is helpless since it is only the Chief Judge that can assign his case to a Judge; those wrongly detained would have to remain in police custody longer since the Police cannot charge them to court since the case cannot be assigned; this will also negatively impact on the economy of lawyers and their professional growth, those who want to apply to become SAN cannot do so. The implications are far-reaching.”

According to him, discrimination against Ikpeme on the basis of where she comes from is a bad precedent capable of dismantling the family structure put together by God.

He said, “Besides anything, Akon Ikpeme’s father was a permanent secretary in the then Cross River and was a DO of Ikom. Akon Ikpeme has Cross River blood maternally. Even if Akon was a hundred percent Akwa Ibom, she has become a Cross Riverians by marriage. You don’t use politics to divide families. If you are a real man, your duty is to protect a woman, that is, if you are truly a man.”

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