By Christian Asema
Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has distanced himself from the protest staged against the state Chief Judge, Justice Maurice Ikpembese, following the controversial decision to relocate the Benue Local Government Election Petitions Tribunal from Benue to Abuja. On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators from Benue State converged in Abuja from the National Assembly to the Supreme Court to express their outrage over the move, which Justice Ikpembese had ordered on March 5 citing safety concerns. The tribunal is tasked with resolving disputes arising from the Local Government elections held on October 5, 2024.
Reports indicate that since October 17, 2024, a total of 93 petitioners ”including aggrieved candidates from both the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party’s ”have filed cases at the tribunal. The Benue State Government, through Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Public Order, Mr. Fidelis Mnyim, questioned the Chief Judge’s unilateral decision, noting that neither the governor nor his office was formally informed.
In an exclusive interview on Monday, Governor Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, emphatically denied any involvement in sponsoring the protest. How can the government sponsor a protest when people are informed through the news and read papers, and they witness how court cases can turn political? The government stands to gain nothing by sponsoring such a demonstration it is focused solely on channeling resources to infrastructural development in the state. It’s unfortunate that the state Chief Judge has to go public and that he selected tough people to sit on the election petition tribunal,Tersoo said.
Adding to the debate, Terna Yaji, Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (Makurdi branch), lamented the increasing politicisation of the tribunal matter. Yaji decried the conflicting orders emerging from the Federal High Court in Makurdi and the High Court in Abuja, stating that such discrepancies have sown uncertainty.It is unfortunate that the court case has become a political case, and this is precisely why we have been urging that politicians should not interfere in judicial processes,he remarked.
The protest comes in the wake of an earlier attempt by the Benue State Government to remove Justice Ikpembese over allegations of misconduct and corruption. The Benue State House of Assembly, acting on a petition from Governor Alia, had recommended the Chief Judge removal”a move that met resistance from both the National Judicial Council and the Nigerian Bar Association.
At the protest, placard-bearing demonstrators condemned the Chief Judge’s decision to relocate the tribunal. Igwe Ude-Umanta, the convener of the protest group, faulted Justice Ikpembese for unilaterally granting a waiver to petitioners—which he argued violated the constitutional requirement for a security deposit”and also criticized Justice M.M. Adamu of the FCT High Court for ordering the tribunal to sit in Abuja, despite a previous order restraining it from doing so in Benue State.
Protesters called on Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, to urgently intervene and expunge corrupt judges from the judiciary. They also urged President Bola Tinubu to take immediate action to address the crisis and safeguard the rule of law, arguing that the current state of affairs threatens Nigeria’s democratic integrity.
In a related judicial development, after the tribunal’s relocation from Makurdi to the Nigeria Bar Association House in Abuja was initially halted by a restraining order from a Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, the ruling All Progressives Congress approached the FCT High Court with a prayer for the tribunal to be relocated as originally ordered by the Benue Chief Judge. On Friday, Justice M.M. Adamu granted this prayer, directing the tribunal to continue its sitting at the NBA House in Abuja while restraining it from convening in Benue State.
