Supreme Court Justice whose illness fuelled unrest dies
Justice Chima Centus (CC) Nweze of the Supreme Court of Nigeria is dead.
Justice Nweze passed away yesterday, at the age of 64, TheNigerialawyer gathered.
According to the information obtained by The Nigeria Lawyer, Justice Nweze had been battling illness for the past few years, and his health had significantly declined during this time.
His ailing health played a role in the recent unrest among Supreme Court Justices, who expressed their concerns during the tenure of the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
At present, the South East region is facing a notable absence in the Supreme Court, as Justice Odili is currently retired, while Justice Ngwuta sadly passed away two years ago.
He is one of the justices who stood out during the ruling on the application filed by Emeka Ihedioha, a former governor of Imo State. Ihedioha had asked the apex court to review its judgement on his removal from office, but while the majority of the seven-man panel disagreed with him, Chima Nweze found merit in the application.
In his dissenting judgment, Nweze asked the court to set aside the January 14 judgment that removed Ihedioha from office, describing it as a nullity and in bad faith.
He also nullified the declaration of Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor on account of “wrong declaration” and held that Uzodinma misled the court into an unjust conclusion with the unverified votes in 388 polling units.
“This decision of the Supreme Court will continue to hunt our electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come,” he said.
“In my intimate reading of the January 14 judgment, the substance of Ihedioha’s matter was lost to time frame. This court once set aside its own earlier judgment and therefore cannot use a time frame to extinguish the right of any person.
“This court has powers to overrule itself and can revisit any decision not by justice. This court has a duty of redeeming its image. I am of the view that this application should succeed. I hereby make an order setting aside the decision of this court made on January 14 and that the certificate of return issued to the appellant be returned to INEC. I also make an order restoring the respondents as the winner of the March 9 governorship election.”
Nweke’s position came as a surprise to those who expected the ruling to be unanimous – as it is in most cases. Of the seven judges on the panel, he was the only one who was not in his seat when the court sacked Ihedioha.
At that time the verdict was unanimous.
‘ATIKU’S APPEAL IS WITHOUT MERIT’
Nweze was part of the supreme court panel that refused the request of Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, to inspect servers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
At the time, Atiku was challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the 2019 presidential election.
“I see no reason for departing from the reasoning of the lower court. I find that this appeal is without merit, and it is accordingly dismissed,” Nweze had held in the unanimous ruling.
Atiku finally lost the appeal.
LEGAL CAREER
In 2014, former President Goodluck Jonathan approved the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to appoint Nweze to the supreme court. Thereafter, he went through screening at the senate and was confirmed as a judge of the apex court.
Before then, Nweze served as a judge of the court of appeal. He had earlier served as judge of the high court of Enugu. Nweze
Nweze was the legal adviser to Okwesilieze Nwodo, a former governor of Enugu state. The jurist, who was born on September 25, 1958, bagged all his degrees – from Bachelor to PhD – from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
He attended St John Cross Seminary, Nsukka between 1972 and 1977. Nweze was called to the bar in 1984 and completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Bauchi in 1985.
He had served as chairman, of the Ogun state governorship and legislative houses election petition tribunal in 1999; chairman, of the robbery and firearms tribunal, Nsukka, 1998 and 1999; and member of, the Ondo State local government election petition Tribunal in 1999. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy of The Nigerian Lawyer)
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