Umuahia, Oct.12, 2024.
An Abia Lawyer, Mr. Nnanna Ukaegbu, has petitioned the Abia Chief Judge, Justice Lilian Abai, over an alleged missing document in an ongoing suit at an Aba High court.
Ukaegbu is also a joint litigant in the Suit No: A/175/2007 with Ms. Diane Lynn Ijioma & Anor Vs. Chief Abara Dickson Ijioma and 6 ors which is pending before Justice Innocent Nwabughiogu of Abia High Court in Aba.
The lawyer also asked Justice Nwabughiogu, to recuse himself from the suit pending the investigation of his complaints against the presiding judge by the Chief Judge of Abia.
Ukaegbu said he resolved to petition the Chief Judge “because of the need for the stream of justice to remain unpolluted”.
The litigant in the petition said the 1st to 4th defendants in the suit on May 9, 2024, served a motion on his counsel which was captured in the court’s record of proceedings.
He further said the defendants’ counsel called his lawyer on 10th May 2024, to inform him that there was a mistake in their earlier motion which required another motion to correct.
”On May 14, 2024, the said 1st to 4th defendants served the second motion on my counsel.
“What was, however, shocking is that the filing date of the motion is May 8, 2024, which is two days before the conception of the application.
“I applied for the certified true copy, and the High Court Registrar gave me the certified true copy but there was no more copy of the exhibit, which is the earlier motion, in the case file.”
Ukaegbu also said that his lawyer has drawn the attention of the court to the missing exhibit from the court record.
He, therefore, urged the Chief Judge to institute an investigation into how the exhibit was tampered with and found missing from the record of the court.
“Who tampered with the case file? Who pilfered the file copy of a process duly filed and served?
“Are there no administrative consequences for the unlawful removal of documents from court’s file?,” he queried.
He emphasized the need to investigate the complaint since there have been several previous cases of tampering with his processes in the same court’s file which he overlooked.
