Lawyers protest in Aba, call for transfer of judge

ABA – Lawyers in Aba, Abia
State, yesterday, called for
the transfer of Justice
Theresa Uzokwe for treating
them with levity. Not even
the intervention of the Acting
Chief Judge, Justice Shedrack
Nwanosike, could stop the
lawyers' protest.
The lawyers accused the
Judge of not according
lawyers respect, alleging
that she treated them with
disdain. For example, they
alleged that on more than
two occasions, she had
punished lawyers whose cell
phones rang unknowingly in
the court.
In one instance, they alleged
that Justice Uzokwe stood a
lawyer up for two hours
behind the dock as a
punishment in the presence
of litigants because his cell
phone rang, while in another
case she was said to have
asked an elderly lawyer to
kneel down for the same
offence.
Yet in another case, she was
said to have directed her
police orderly to smash the
phone of a lawyer, in spite of
appeals from Chairman of
Aba branch of NBA, Mr.
Charles Eduzor.
On the strength of these
allegations, the lawyers on
Monday picketed High Court
2 which she presides over,
and in a resolution that
preceded the picketing, Aba
NBA called on the NJC to
either retire or remove
Uzokwe as a Judge of High
Court of Abia State.
Aba Bar also called on the
acting Chief Judge of the
State to transfer Justice
Uzokwe, pending when NJC
would take action to transfer
her out of Aba Judicial
Division and its environs.
Worried by the development,
the Acting Chief Judge met
with the Judge and
representatives of NBA
under closed door, but the
meeting was said to have
ended in stalemate as the
lawyers insisted that Justice
Uzokwe must be transferred
out of Aba Division.
Speaking after the meeting,
Charles Eduzor, Aba NBA
chairman, said they gave the
Judge the opportunity to
respond to series of reports
that bordered on misconduct
against her which their
members brought daily, and
which were equally
communicated to the Acting
Chief Judge.
"There were lawyers who
merely recommended
sureties to accused persons
and ended up in Police cell
for not producing the
accused persons. Meanwhile
the lawyer did not take the
client on bail. It is the
responsibility of the surety to
produce the accused.
"A lawyer's phone
mistakenly rang in court and
she ordered a policeman to
smash the phone and the
phone was smashed and the
pieces brought to court,
which is an act of malicious
damage.
"It is not a judicial act. Even
if she intended to smash the
phone, the lawyer should
have been given a trial, but
she did not give the lawyer a
fair hearing before
destroying his phone.
"Another lawyer's phone
rang again, she stood him up
with wig and robe, behind
the dock and that is turning
the law on its head. She
would have de-robed the
lawyer before punishing
him," Eduzor lamented.
The NBA chairman said if the
authorities refused to
transfer the judge, lawyers
would continue to picket the
court until she left the
division, either voluntarily or
involuntarily

Source...
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