- Justice Evoh Chukwu
Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, is dead.
Justice Chukwu is the presiding judge in the forgery case against Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
According to a statement issued by Emmanuel Gako, the court’s chief registrar, Chukwu died after a brief illness. It stated that the court declared Thursday a work-free day in honour of the departed judge.
It added that all court registrars had been directed to adjourn cases that were initially slated for hearing on Thursday to ensure total compliance. The deceased was also handling the trial of former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako.
Nyako is standing trial over allegations of abuse of office and economic crimes leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The case was recently re-assigned to the deceased judge by Ibrahim Auta, chief judge of the court. This followed the declining of Adeniyi Ademola, a justice, to give judgment in the matter following an allegation of bias raised by Ekweremadu.
Chukwu was born on August 24, 1964 in Afikpo north local government area (LGA) of Ebonyi State. He was appointed a judge of the court on January 23, 2008. Some senators opposed to the leadership of the 8th Senate had filed a suit alleging that the Senate standing order used for the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu was forged.
