From Olanrewaju Lawal,Birnin Kebbi

 Three suspended Magistrates of the Kebbi State Judiciary have linked their ordeals for showed interest and applied for the vacancies available in the High Court judges position of the state.

It could be recalled that on October 14th,2022, the Chief Registrar of High Court, Kebbi state Judiciary, Hussainin Abdullahi Zuru has announced the suspension of Chief Magistrate Mustapha Umar Maccido and Chief Magistrate Umar Salihu Kokani.

While Maccido was suspended for allegedly involved in private practices, absconded, Kokani was suspended for slapping a State Counsel, Abdullahi Bawa Dan Bauchi. A female Magistrate, Halima Umar was also allegedly suspended for granting bails to cattle rustler.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Magistrate Maccido, in an interview with newsmen in Birnin Kebbi lamented that, they were forced to embark on speaking with the journalists because the authority concern had hurriedly -rushed to the media to tarnish their image, instead of resolving the issues without letting the public know.

He said: “all these problems was as a result of our showing interest to be elevated to the High Court vacancies. All the allegations against us were not true. Just last week Monday, magistrate Haima Umar, another female Magistrate was suspended for another issue that she allegedly granted bail to cattle rustler. This offence is capital; offence which is 14 years in imprisonment without bail which she has no jurisdiction over it. That is the information we got from CRH himself on the radio discussion  for an hour  yesterday.

“But all these are camouflage they are not true. There are multiple issues linking into all these. One of the important issue is that, I, Chief Magistrate Kokani, and magistrate Halima, we all expressed our interest for the elevation to the Higher Court, which is our rights. And the rules of NJC is very clear, in the 2014 NJC guideline for the appointment for the  Judiciary officers which required that there should be advertisement  of the existing vacancies in the High Court. Also, the same guideline required that you must send the  advertisement to the 38 states of the federation notifying all the indigenes of the Kebbi state in each state  to show interest in the vacancies. Through this channel, we can come out with the best candidates for the positions.

“So, what happened was that, they didn’t comply with the guide line of the NJC which stated that they must advertise the vacancies. They just posted a tiny paper in one angle in the Kebbi State High Court headquarters, Birnin Kebbi and pasted another one at the Shariah Court of Appeal where there is no Lawyer. They didn’t serve any copy to the Chairman of NBA, they didn’t served a copy to the Chairman of the Magistrate Association of Nigeria (MAN), Kebbi state, they didn’t serve any private Legal practitioner. So, they didn’t advertise it as recommended by the NJC guideline.

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“So, with this, we believed that the Chief Justice of Kebbi state have violated the NJC guideline which also invalidate the process. Not only that, the advertisement process should also last for 21 days of two weeks. But they pasted their advertisement of the 5th of October, and removed it on the 6th of October and the deadline given in the advertisement was 7th October for interested candidates. That means, they only gave one day grace to replace 10 retiring judicial officers. This means, to jump into conclusion, the process is fraudulent.
“All our suspension, recalling, happened because we applied for the vacancies. That is the only reason. Because, coincidence, this could not just happened. I applied, he applied and she applied and we are the only persons facing these suspensions, recalling  tussle”, he said.

Maccido, told newsmen that the case of accused person who allegedly beaten up, Chief Magistrate Kokani was still before a competent Court in Birnin Kebbi, stressed that, they would continue with the case to ensure justice was done to their colleague.

He disclosed that, as against the Law and rules, Chief Magistrate Kokani was compel to appeared before a committee, comprises of NBA, Lawyers, who usually appear before him in Court just to ridicule him, stressed that, at the end, their report was rejected because the committee did not found him guilty.

According to him, “But  because of anger, CJ communicated to the Chief Registrar to quickly  invited the press to publish their side of the story, that is, they have jump the gun. That is very dangerous. I thought, by now, they would have withdrew their statement, considering the fact that the allegation against me, involving in private practice has not been proven yet and I have not absconded. I am here in the state, how could I absconded?
“He should have set up a committee to investigate me if truly they want to do justice and prevent the reoccurrences of such. But what we saw was a kangaroo committee. What we saw was that, the Chief Magistrate here was asked to face a committee comprises of NBA, Lawyers. That is contempt for CJ to allow a Magistrate to appear before Lawyers? They just want to ridicule him.  NBA is a group of Lawyers. CJ ought to have set up a committee made up of senior Judiciary staff not Lawyers. But just to huminate him, embarrass him, that is why he forced him to face group of Lawyers.

“They have done justice because the NBA report was rejected by CJ. The recalls to the headquarters was to embarrass him, by always coming to the office, greeting the CJ and go and seat down under the trees because he do not have office for now”, he noted.

He however appealed to the NJC and other stakeholders to intervene on the matter in order to protect the Judiciary from been rubbished.