Justice Tsoho, Others Fingered In Plot To Compromise Lawsuits Blocking Forwarding Of So-called NDDC’s Board Appointees To Senate

The Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho has been accused of bias, compromise and working with vested interests to ensure that all the lawsuits filed by Rights groups and NGOs at the federal High Courts in Delta, Edo and Rivers States challenging the composition of the Board and Management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) recently announced by the Federal Government comes to naught.

The uproar which greeted the announcement followed the non-compliance with the provisions of the NNDC Act No. 6 of 2000 by President Muhammadu Buhari in the nomination of the leadership of the yet to be inaugurated Board.

The Act clearly prescribes how the Chairman and Managing Director and Board should be appointed.

The watchdog group, Centre For Accountability and Good Governance, says it has uncovered a memo from the Acting Chief Justice’s office directing the Registrars of the courts in the states where the suits were filed to hands off the cases and transfer them to Abuja, where the group said they will be reassigned to a favourable judge in the federal capital, who will in turn dismiss the cases.

The statement said: “We have reliably gathered that the Registrars in the Federal High Court in the states where cases were filed to nullify the composition of the board and management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) recently announced by the Federal Government have been directed by the Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho to transfer the cases to Abuja.

“This is an unprecedented development as we have reliably gathered that the cases will be assigned to a compromised judge who is working for the cabal that influenced the illegal appointment. The plan is to have the cases thrown out of the court system.

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“We, like several other groups are shocked that President Muhammadu Buhari could be misled to make the appointments into the NDDC in violation of the Law. Gladly, this has been brought to the attention of the President and we believe the delay in forwarding their names to the Senate for confirmation is because he is now aware of the grave error.

“We are however using this statement to alert the public of this shady plot by the Acting Chief Judge and the ugly cabal behind the appointment as we gathered they are hell bent on pressing on with their illegality.”

All the lawsuits are asking the courts to nullify the appointment because it is in conflict with the NDDC Act.

Culled from the THEWILL except the headline