The Court of Appeal on Wednesday stopped Justice Abang Okon from hearing a case against former governor of Benue, Gabriel Suswam, alongside his former commissioner of finance, Okolobia Okpanachi.
Justice Abang ordered that the matter should go back to Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Suswam and Okpanachi with nine counts of money laundering and diversion of of N3.1 billion.
In a unanimous judgment, the appellate court ordered that the case should be sent back to Justice Mohammed of the same court for continuation of trial.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the judgment, also ordered that Justice Mohammed who had shown unjustified reluctance in entertaining the case should give the trial an accelerated hearing.
The court held that Justice Mohammed was wrong to have recused himself from hearing the case on account of fear, when all the parties had expressed confidence in him.
Although the court commended Justice Abang, who is currently adjudicating on the matter, for showing deligence in the trial.
It held that its decision to return the case to Justice Mohammed was to correct the error made by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court by re-assigning the case to him.
Justice Agim explained that this was to strengthen the path of justice and protect the institution of the judiciary as the Chief Judge misapplied his discretion, when he re-assigned the case to Justice Abang, rather than directing Justice Muhammed to continue with the trial.
The court held that although the Chief Judge has the powers under section 19 of the Federal High Court Rules, to assign cases to any judge of the court “such discretion must be exercised properly and not recklessly so as to meet the justice of the case.”
