As controversy rages over age falsification by former judges of the Imo State judiciary, the State Judicial Service Commission has named a faceless group of people as the cabals behind their travails.
The Director of Information for the Imo Judicial Service Commission, Frank Okafor, disclosed in a statement dated June 13, 2025.
He disclosed that the National Judicial Council had permitted Governor Hope Uzodimma to appoint 10 new judges to the Imo State judiciary.
According to him, the judiciary cabal had infiltrated the judiciary and the Owerri branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, where they traded judgments for their loyalists as against competence.
The commission expressed disappointment in Prof Anselm Odinkalu for his comments and name-calling without evidence of any misconduct, saying he ought to have verified facts before going public.
“We are disappointed in some eminent Nigerians who have decided to destroy their credibility by dabbling into the contentious issues involved in the Imo Judiciary without information or investigation.
“Most to be pitied is our friend Prof Ansiem Odinkalu, who in his usual style as an armchair critic called members of the commission ‘petty rogues’ without evidence of any misdemeanour or misconduct by these eminent members other than the Nigerian Bar Association politics.
“We had expected that the professor of law would have placed a call to some members of the commission or visited the secretariat of the commission to verify the fact sold to him by his paymasters who procured him to add impetus to the dissemination of falsehood against the Government of Imo State and the Imo State Judicial Service Commission members,” Okafor said.
He admitted that 19 judges were currently being investigated for age alterations, even as he said the JSC was unaware of those involved.
“Again, nobody knew who and who altered their ages, if any. Also, nobody knew how many of our judges were involved in that act.
“The commission members were shocked when the reports from the Nigerian Law School/Council of Legal Education disclosed that as many as 19 judges, including very young and brilliant judges, were involved in the act,” he said.
On the redeployment of the former Chief Registrar of the High Court, Okafor said in line with the oath of office, which is to uphold the truth, justice, and right, the JSC had not and would not engage in any sort of witch hunt of anybody.
Punch
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