National Judicial Council (NJC) has suspended two serving judges for one year without pay over acts of judicial misconduct and violations of the Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2016.
The affected judges are Hon. Justice Ibrahim D. Shekarau of the High Court of Nasarawa State and Hon. Justice Edward A. E. Okpe of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Specifically, the Council suspended Hon. Justice Ibrahim D. Shekarau of the High Court of Nasarawa State for one year without pay for judicial misconduct involving the grant of an ex parte order in breach of Rules 3.1, 3.3 and 3.5 of the Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2016.
The suspension followed a petition by Oluwafunke Obale Ozozoma over proceedings in Suit No. NSD/MG56M/2025.
The petitioner alleged Hon. Justice Shekarau granted an ex parte order directing the transfer of N7 million from her bank account to a third party third party as a purported reversal of funds. She contended that the ex parte application was filed, heard, and granted on the same day without any substantive suit pending before the Court, and that the order wrongly implied her involvement in fraud despite her not being charged or made a party to the proceedings. She further alleged that the Judge failed to verify the alleged erroneous transfer before making the order, thereby amounting to judicial misconduct.
The committee found that the Judge acted in bad faith, failed to observe due process and demonstrated lack of professional competence.
Similarly, the Council suspended Hon. Justice Edward A. E. Okpe of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory for one year without pay over allegations of breach of fair hearing in a matrimonial case.
The decision followed a petition filed by Mr. Sunday Emmanuel Oso, who accused the Judge of bias and denial of fair hearing in Suit No. FCT/HC/PET/529/2024 between Lateefat Adeola Oso and Sunday Emmanuel Oso.
In the petition, Oso alleged that although he was served hearing notices fixing the matter for September 19, 2024, the court heard and granted an ex-parte application on September 17, 2024 without notice to him.
He further alleged that when the matter later came up, the judge declined to hear the Motion on Notice and instead entertained committal proceedings against him based on alleged disobedience of the earlier ex-parte order.
The committee found that Hon. Justice Okpe granted an ex parte application that led to committal proceedings against the petitioner without affording him the opportunity to be heard, contrary to Rule 3.3 of the Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers.
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