Judges Must Be Above Board – Amaechi

Rivers State Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi says judges must be above board in order to deliver justice to the people.

Rt Hon Amaechi made the assertion last Friday while swearing in a new High Court Judge, Justice Stanley Owajima Benson in Government House, Port Harcourt.

He reminded the new judge that aside being upright, judges were also sacred because of the unique responsibility of administering justice in society.

In the words of the Rivers State Chief Executive, “you have the power of life and death. I don’t have that. So, when you sit in that sacred place that you sit, you should be observant because that was to be the difference for you who are judges. You are quite different from all of us who are in this hall. We can be careless about what we say, but you cannot afford to be careless about what you say.

‘No judge can be careless about what he says, you are a different specie of human beings in an country”, Amaechi posited.

The chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) also advised Justice Benson to  jettison what had happened in the past, stressing that , that was one way the new judge could carry out his duties without bitterness.

Despite the delay in his appointment, Governor Amaechi noted that on reading his petition and hearing a court judgement to that effect, he had already agreed in his  mind to endorse his appointment.

“So, please while I congratulate you for being sworn-in as a Judge of Rivers State High Court, I still plead with you in the name of Christ, you and I worship, that you should divorce that pain”, said Amaechi, adding that when I came back to Rivers State, I was full of pain, but I remember God said keep it away from governance. You must forgive everybody and govern the state in a manner that is pleasing to God”.

In a similar vein, President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Okey Wali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) has hailed the decision of Rivers State government in swearing in the  new judge.

He noted that the governor had displayed high sense of rule of law by obeying the decision of the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC).

Mr Wali, therefore, charged Justice Benson to ensure he carried out his duties with zeal and fairness as expected of him by society.