6 Court Staff Leak Undelivered Judgment, Obtain Sack

                               

  

About six court staff, five from the Supreme Court and one from the Court of Appeal, both from Abuja division have
been fired by the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) for allegedly leaking an undelivered judgment in the case of SC 179/2012 connected to Senator Alphonsus Uba Igbeke, Lady Margery Okadigbo and three others.

This disclosure was made by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Sunday Olorudahunsi in a statement issued on Thursday.

According to him, the suspects were discovered through a thorough investigation carried out to have connived among themselves and allegedly with two outsiders, Senator Igbeke and one Collins Okechukwu to leak the judgment before it was delivered on May 31, 2013.

The statement read, “Senator Igbeke put a paid advert on page 42 of the Daily Sun of May 30, 2013, alleging that the said judgment had leaked, which forced his counsel in the matter, Chief Wole Olanipekun, to write to the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court to dissociate himself from the publication, as well as withdrawing his service to Senator Igbeke on the matter.

“The FJSC considered their act as serious misconduct that runs contrary to Regulation 48(1)(xi) of the FJSC Regulations, Regulation 49 and Regulation 60(1) (i).”

  

In the mean time, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation have been asked by the Commission to further probe the motive behind the leakage, as well as take legal action against Igbeke and Okechukwu for allegedly masterminding the leak.

The staff names were given as; Bada Kayode, Festus Ilurimi, Russell Ndenu, Stephen Izonebi, Olayinka Abiodun and Nathaniel Abraham.