Counsel Gives Recipe To End Rivers Judiciary Crisis

A Port Harcourt based
legal practitioner, Barr. P.K. Nwangwe has said that for the judiciary crisis in Rivers State to be resolved, there must be dialogue between the state government and National Judicial Council (NJC).
Barr. Nwangwe, who stated this in Port Harcourt while speaking with The Tide Monday noted that sentiments in both the state government and NJC had  hindered the resolution of the conflict.
He expressed regrets that the Nigerian Bar Association had been polarised along party lines and remarked that with the coming of a new Chief Justice of the Nigeria, Mahmud there was a glimmer of hope that courts in the state would be re-opened.
Barr Nwangwe lamented the ugly situation that the lingering Rivers judiciary crisis had put young lawyers into.
According to him, “It is difficult for young lawyers to make ends meet, some of us that are family men are grappling with the issues of paying our children’s schools, paying rents among others.
‘It is amazing that this conflict has not come to an end. The lawyers are worse of. What about the litigents, they have to find a way to ventilate their issues, the lawyer stated.
“The end of this crisis is not in sight as everyside is trying to say that it is right but in the face of struggle for supremacy between the two parties, suspects are languishing in custodies, litigants are battling up their tension and lawyers are losing their means of livelihood’, he pointed out.
In a related development, a Port Harcourt based lawyer Barr C.C. Nzemachi has said that the Rivers judiciary crisis would be expeditiously resalved  if parties obeyed  the rule of law.
Barr. Nzemachi, who stated this while chatting with The Tide in Port Harcourt Monday, explained that there was a subsisting court judgement on the matter.
He stated that the judgement was to the effect that the appointment of P.N.C Agumagu as the Chief Judge of Rivers State was in order and that Justice Agumagu was not under any disability serving as the president of the state Customary Court of Appeal.
Barr. Nzemachi said he was not aware of any stay of execution of the said federal High Court judgement.
He noted that in the absence of stay of execution the courts would have been allowed to operate without hinderance.
The Port Harcourt lawyer said the situation was adversely affecting lawyers, litigants and accused persons.
He called on both the NJC and the Rivers State government to quickly resolve the crisis.
Barr Nzemachi expressed regrets that many  of his colleagues especially the young lawyers were finding it difficult to make ends meet.

Chidi Enyie & Mildred Jaja

A team of policemen at the Rivers State Judiciary complex in Port Harcourt, recently. Photo: Chris Monyanaga