{"id":3785,"date":"2019-11-24T07:55:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T07:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785"},"modified":"2019-11-24T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T07:55:01","slug":"opinion-justice-okon-abang-a-judge-or-a-tool-of-suppression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>OPINION:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>By Olasupo Ayodeji<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Observing the trend of ruthlessness being exhibited by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Abuja, against several high profile cases that he adjudicates upon. It has become pertinent to trace his records so far as a Judge.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>In the not too faraway past, several voices have been heard calling on the authorities concerned to do away with people like Abang to clear the integrity of the bench as a major stakeholder in demonizing it.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>It is more like Abang is kept and protected in the bench to serve the biddings of the highest bidder, in this case, the powers that be. This is not too difficult to acertain judging by the fact that many controversial cases have passed through him and the supposed victors became the vanquished.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>A five member panel of the of the Appeal court led by Justice Morenike Ogunwumiju once said about Abang that he &#8220;raped democracy&#8221; when he annulled the election of Abia state Governor Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and ordered INEC to issue a certificate of return to Mr Uchechukwu Ogah without evidence of forgery against Dr Ikpeazu. The court went further to say that Abang embarked on a goose chase and that he spoke from both sides of his mouth.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state had once asked the National Judicial Commission to sack Justice Okon Abang\u00a0 saying it will save Nigeria judiciary from disgrace. Governor Fayose issued a reaction to the Appeal court&#8217;s ruling saying &#8220;it is obvious that Justice Abang is representing the dirty interests of some cabals, who are protecting him despite the incalculable damages he has done to the judiciary&#8221;.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>He also said &#8220;Today again, three justices of the Appeal court descended on Justice Abang, describing his judgement imposing Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP governorship candidate in Ondo state and the one affirming Senator Ali Modu Sherif and the PDP national chairman as fraudulent.&#8221;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Abang is seen by a lot of observers as unashamedly and blatantly a pawn in the hands of APC puppeteers. He makes no attempt to disguise or hide the authorship of the script he is acting. He has penchant for abuse of court processes and actions of impunity.\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>He is also the same judge today that is acting a gangster dictator in his court instructing the former Pensions boss Abdulrasheed Maina not to look at him in the court room.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Responding to a petition against him filed before the chief judge by Maina, Abang only acted the script of a man being chased by his enemies instead of responding to the charges against him.\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>It is\u00a0 such that people taken before him loose hope for justice and this negativity goes back to the entire judiciary.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Understanding his body language and susceptibility to judicial malpractice, the EFCC that should be busy investigating his misdeeds is instead using his services to nail some innocent individuals to achieve some personal whims despite proofs of their innocence.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>To even buttress this fact further, it is on record that Abang had been transfered from Abuja headquarters to the Federal High Court division in Asaba but to the surprise of all the EFCC worked their way out and brought him back to Abuja. Definitely in return of one good turn, other people&#8217;s rights are compromised by the judge to please the EFCC.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>It is is true that in a civilised society, a public judicial worker facing these allegations against him will resign to protect his image. With Abang, reverse is the case as he enjoys protection to unveil his mischiefs at the expense of the image and integrity of the judiciary.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>We will not relent in our call to the National Judicial Commission to get rid of Justice Okon Abang before he rids the judiciary of its image as the final hope of the common man.<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression By Olasupo Ayodeji Observing the trend of ruthlessness being exhibited by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Abuja, against several high profile cases that he adjudicates upon. It has become pertinent to trace his records so far as a Judge. In the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression By Olasupo Ayodeji Observing the trend of ruthlessness being exhibited by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Abuja, against several high profile cases that he adjudicates upon. It has become pertinent to trace his records so far as a Judge. In the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-24T07:55:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZAINAB TANIMU\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZAINAB TANIMU\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785\",\"name\":\"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-24T07:55:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#\/schema\/person\/faffbb141ad72e9bc665f603c95ca365\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg\",\"width\":450,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#\/schema\/person\/faffbb141ad72e9bc665f603c95ca365\",\"name\":\"ZAINAB TANIMU\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e89828a0637116ffc513026e478f73fd30000bfffd8574e845936fb44d48266?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e89828a0637116ffc513026e478f73fd30000bfffd8574e845936fb44d48266?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ZAINAB TANIMU\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?author=5\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression -","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression -","og_description":"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression By Olasupo Ayodeji Observing the trend of ruthlessness being exhibited by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court Abuja, against several high profile cases that he adjudicates upon. It has become pertinent to trace his records so far as a Judge. In the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785","article_published_time":"2019-11-24T07:55:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":450,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ZAINAB TANIMU","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ZAINAB TANIMU","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785","url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785","name":"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression -","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg","datePublished":"2019-11-24T07:55:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#\/schema\/person\/faffbb141ad72e9bc665f603c95ca365"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg","width":450,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?p=3785#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"OPINION: Justice Okon Abang: A judge or a tool of suppression"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/","name":"","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#\/schema\/person\/faffbb141ad72e9bc665f603c95ca365","name":"ZAINAB TANIMU","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e89828a0637116ffc513026e478f73fd30000bfffd8574e845936fb44d48266?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e89828a0637116ffc513026e478f73fd30000bfffd8574e845936fb44d48266?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ZAINAB TANIMU"},"url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/?author=5"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/wp-1574581782732.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9l2uQ-Z3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3788,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions\/3788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsreservoir.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}