President
Goodluck Jonathan has approved the compulsory retirement of Justices
Gladys Olotu and U. A. Inyang of the Federal High Court and FCT High
Court respectively with effect from February 3 2014.
Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, who
confirmed this to State House correspondents, said the compulsory
retirement is in accordance with the recommendation of the National
Judicial Council.
It would be recalled that the
NJC last week announced the suspension of the justices for for gross
misconduct after which it forwarded a recommendation for their
cumpulsory retirement to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Giving
details of the misdemeanour of the affected justices, the Acting
Director of Information in the NJC, Soji Oye had explained that the
council, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar
“recommended the compulsory retirement from office of Justice G.K. Olotu
of the Federal High Court and Justice U. A. Inyang of High Court of
Justice of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, respectively for gross
misconduct.”
He said the recommendation for compulsory retirement
of the two judges was based on findings made by the NJC after
investigations into allegations contained in petitions brought against
them.
The NJC found that Justice Olotu “failed to deliver
judgment on Suit No. FHC/UY/250/2003, 18 months after the final address
by all the counsel in the suit, contrary to the constitutional
provisions that judgments should be delivered within a period of 90
days.”
Also, Justice Olotu “admitted before the Fact Finding
Committee of the Council that investigated the allegations that she
forgot she had a pending ruling to deliver in an application for
joinder.”

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