Federal High court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, has fixed March 18, to pronounce judgment on the appointment of Chief Judge of the state.
Justice Lambo Akanmbi, having taken the addresses of counsels to the plaintiffs and defendant respectively, noted that the nature of the case made short adjournment inevitable and therefore adjourned to the above date to enable him write his judgment, for delivery on the fateful date.
Counsel to plaintiffs, the state governor, Rivers State Judicial Council,RSJC, and the Attorney General of the state and Commissioner for Justice, Lateef Fagbemi , had argued that Nigeria Judicial Council, NJC, had no right to compel his clients to appoint any candidate.
Rather as the appointer, he had the discretional power to choose between Justice Peter N.C. Agumagu and Daisy Okocha.
Chief Fagbemi referred to the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria section 271, subsection 3 and 5 respectively, which according to him allowed his plaintiff the discretionary powers to choose between both candidates which NJC had recommended to them.
The counsel to NJC Jimoh Daudu Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN corrected that his client being an institution established under the law had made list of candidates made available to it and therefore concluded that Justice Daisy Okocha was more qualified of the two.
Chief Daudu also noted that in the light of two candidates presented to the commission, the plaintiff therefore lacked discretion to choose a candidate outside the recommended Justice Okocha. He concluded that the plaintiff would have had a choice if the Rivers State Judicial Council had not submitted to his client the list of candidates for recommendation.
In his response, counsel to second defendant, Justice Okocha, who was drafted in as one, following last ruling on her application, Emmanuel C. Ukala, posited that the first candidate, Justice Peter W.C. Agumagu, was dropped due to unfavourable security report against him, accusing him of character defect.