Supreme Court Upholds Lower Court’s Judgement on Justice Nganjiwa’s Trial

Steve Aya

The EFCC lost its appeal, as the Supreme Court on Friday, upheld the December 2017 judgement of the Court of Appeal, Lagos which quashed the corruption charge against Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court, on the grounds that he was a serving Judge.

The Court of Appeal had in its judgement, held that under Section 158 of the Constitution, it is only the National Judicial Council (NJC) that has the power to deal with allegations of misconduct against a serving Judge, and that such a Judge could only be tried in the regular court after the recommendation of the NJC.

In their judgement, the seven-member Panel of  Justices of the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, and dismissed the appeal by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the agency that was trying Nganjiwa.

The Apex Court held that the appeal lacked merit.

Justice Centus Nweze wrote the lead judgment, which was read by Justice Adamu Jauro.

The EFCC, in a 14-count charge, accused the Judge of receiving $260,000 and N8.65 million “from suspicious sources” through his bank accounts between 2013 and 2015.

It equally accused Justice Nganjiwa of using the money to enrich himself as a public officer, contrary to Section 82 (a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The EFCC further accused him of giving false information to its agents.

The Judge was arraigned before Justice Adedayo Akintoye of the High Court of Lagos State in Igbosere on June 23, 2017, during which he pleaded not guilty.

Justice Nganjiwa later challenged the competence of the charge through a notice of preliminary objection, which the High Court rejected.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal in Lagos upheld his appeal and quashed the charge before the High Court of Lagos, a decision the Supreme Court upheld in its judgement on Friday in the appeal marked: SC/794/2019 filed by the EFCC.