Despite his legal moves to stave it, embattled Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Peter Agumagu, has proceeded on the indefinite suspension slammed on him by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for breach of oath of office, Nigerian Tribune has learnt.
He was suspended at the council’s 10th emergency meeting last Wednesday but got both his suspension notification and query the next day.
The council gave him four days to explain why he should not be booted out of service.
The ultimatum for his response expires today.
As at press time, checks showed that the expected reply to the query had not come in.
The four days were not inclusive of last Saturday and Sunday, which extended the ultimatum till today, according to a source.
Nigerian Tribune was told by a top system source that if Agumagu failed to send his response in by today, he should be saying goodbye to his career.
The source called the attention of Nigerian Tribune to the tenor of the query which was just an opportunity to possibly rescue his career already on the guillotine.
“The query said he should explain why he should not be exited from service. It means the council already felt he had taken himself out of service by his misconduct but the query is an opportunity for fair-hearing and possibly for fresh information that could save him. If he bungled such golden opportunity, he can only blame himself afterwards,”the source said.
His legal forays both in Port-Harcourt and Abuja to counter the suspension order yielded little or no respite.
It was gathered that judges in the state now relate directly with the leadership of the judiciary in Abuja, given council’s directive that Agumagu should not be recognised by stakeholders in the state judicial division.
The embattled CJ is also said to have stopped going to his office, and was reportedly there last Thursday.
Memos and administrative directives have also reportedly dried up from his office.
Cases have also remained unassigned as judges reportedly shunned him as CJ since his controversial three-month acting period, during which the council also disowned him.
His suspension as a judicial officer has also left the Customary Court of Appeal in the state “headless.”
Source: Tribune
