NJC investigate Bayelsa High Court judge

The National Judicial Council(NJC), has commenced an investigation into the allegation of judicial rascality and acting outside the rules of the court levelled against a judge of the Bayelsa State High Court, Justice Ineikade Eradiri.

The NJC, in a letter confirming the receipt of the petition against Justice Eradiri dated February 28, 2019, with reference number NJC/S6/BAY HC/9/1/154, assured the petitioner, former Bayelsa Security Adviser, Chief Perekeme Kpodoh, of speedy investigation into the petition.

The petition, made available to newsmen in Yenagoa by a rights group, Niger Delta Coalition for Peace and Defence of Human Rights, NDCPDHR, led by Mr. Nelson Patrick, accused the judge of alleged judicial rascality by ignoring an application for stay of proceeding at the Court of Appeal which bothers on an appeal against a ruling delivered by the court in an application wherein the judge was accused of bias.

In the petition dated February 11, Chief Kpodoh, prayed the NJC to level appropriate sanction against the judge, insisting that the judge is part of a conspiracy to convict him for an offence he is innocent of, “despite a clear and credible case of a real likelihood of bias made against the judge and indeed driven by the said conspiracy, the judge ignored the fact that there is presently in the Court of Appeal a case seeking to disqualify him and proceeded to adjourned the matter for continuation of hearing.

“I reasonably believe that the conduct of the judge amounts to judicial rascality for which an appropriate sanction should be meted out.”

In an affidavit verifying the petition, which was deposed to by his brother, Mr. John Amayare, due to the fact that he is still in prison custody, he recalled the court proceedings presided over by the judge and his ruling that has continued to deny bail to the petitioner and refusal to hands off the case despite alleged bias in a petition before the state Chief Judge and a formal motion on notice.

According to him, “the judge in his ruling on the bail application referred to the proof of evidence filed in the case as ones that are serious and not frivolous.

“I am very much concerned with those comments of the judge because the issue of seriousness of evidence or that of the proof of evidence are not ones that are frivolous goes to the root of the matter and for the judge to make such reference while refusing my bail application is a manifestation of prejudice and explicable only in the construction that the judge has decided the case against me pre-trial.”