A Lawyer, Emmanuel Onuoha has petitioned the National Judiciary Commission (NJC), accusing the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Raymond Ozoemena of misconduct and abuse of office.
In a petition shared online, the lawyer accused the Enugu Chief Judge of giving an ex parte order to one Ikechukwu Ede to take possession of his clients’ land.
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He said this comes after the Federal High Court presided by Justice C.l. Nwobodo had delivered judgement in February 2017, in favour of his clients on the land, adding that dissatisfied with the ruling, Ede had taken the case to the Court of Appeal but withdrew it midway.
The petition dated November 9, 2023 further noted that Justice Ozoemena had even ruled in favour of his clients, Ikengwu, in January, 2016, when some group of persons challenged his clients’ ownership of the property.
The lawyer detailed several instances where Ede had violated court orders and trampled on the land after losing the case.
He stressed that despite the Court judgement, Ede and his group continued breaking and selling parcels of the land to unsuspecting public, which made his clients to file contempt proceeding against him and some of his cronies, including IIoabuchi Christopher, Friday Odoh, Osinachi Odoh, Onukwube Odoh, in which two of them were convicted and sentenced to prison.
Speaking further, the lawyer pointed out in the petition that toward the end of October, his clients discovered that Ede had gone to the land with some unknown person and made inscriptions to the effect that possession of the land had been taken by the high Court of Enugu State on his behalf.
He said his clients discovered recently that Ede was making clandestine moves to break into his clients’ land, using the Chief Justice of Enugu State as his backbone, stressing that further investigation reveals that Ede had applied for writ of execution, using a ruling given to him by Justice Ozoemena.
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The lawyer is requesting the NJC to look into the situation, noting that the trend is capable of painting the judiciary in Enugu and Nigeria in bad light.
