Ikpeazu frowns at findings by Abia Judicial Reform committee

The Committee on the Reform of the Judiciary set up by the Abia State Government has submitted its report to the Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, as the Governor frowned at some of the findings of the committee, describing it as unfortunate.

The Governor said that what is happening in the socio-political milieu of the country calls for sober reflection, stating that he sees the judiciary as a sacred institution which is not supposed to produce persons who are not sincere and patriotic to the state through their attitude to government work.

The Governor commended the committee for its dedication in discharging its assignment on time and promised to study and implement the recommendations of the committee.

Presenting the report earlier, the chairman of the committee and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Umeh Kalu (SAN), said that in line with the committee’s mandate of identifying the staff strength of the judiciary and Court harmonisation, it toured the 17 Local Government Areas of the state, visited courts, 31 magistrates courts , 54 customary courts and 1 Customary Court of Appeal.

He said that the committee observed falsification of age affidavit, recruitment of 85 staff without waiver and existence of too many courts and magistrate districts that were overstaffed among others.

He said that some of the committee’s recommendation include that those who falsified affidavit of age be compulsorily retired, that the judiciary service commission redeploys the excess staff to the ministries where their services may be needed and lawyers among them be assigned to judges.

The Committee further recommended that the magisterial districts be reduced from 43 to 17, one per LGA.