Court of Appeal President Sacks Panel of Judges over Corruption in Delta Case, Appoints New Judges

The five man panel in charge of the April 11, 2015 Delta State governorship election at the Court of Appeal in Benin city has been sacked and new panel sets to replaced them by President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa.

Justice  Zainab stated the sack was based on  allegation laid against the judges of compromising, corrupting and abusing their office.



The governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emerhor Otega, and the Labour Party (LP) Great Ogboru, dragged Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Appeal Court, urging it to set aside of the decision of the Justice N.U. Gummi led Governorship Election Tribunal, which declared Governor Okowa the winner of the governorship election.

The names of the sacked alleged corrupt and compromised judges are: Justice J.O. Bada, Justice P.M. Ekpe, Justice H.A. Barka, Justice M.N. Oniyiangi, and Justice U.A. Ogakwu.  The names of the new judges included Justice Mrs Uwani Abba-Aji (Chairman), Justice Tom Yakubu, Justice Mhd Danjuma, Justice I.O. Akeju, and Justice (Mrs) Bolaji-Yusuf.

SaharaReporters noted further that the corrupt and compromised judges were sacked last week and the newly appointed judges to handle the governorship appeal case resumed office last Monday.

And also learned that judgement for the Delta State governorship case has been reserved for this week on Tuesday or Wednesday.

At the time of filing this report, tension is said to have gripped the camp of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the PDP.