Legal practitioners under the aegis of Concerned Laywers in Cross River State, had yesterday, blocked the entrance to Governor Ben Ayade’s office in Calabar and demanded the appointment of a substantive chief judge for the state.

Ayade had earlier sworn-in Justice Effiom Ita as the Acting Chief Judge of the state due to the failure of the National Judicial Commission, NJC, to approve the appointment of Justice Maurice Eneji as substantive Chief Judge of the state.

During the swearing in of Justice Ita at the Executive Council Chambers, Ayade said the decision to swear in the Justice was in line with the directives of the NJC that the next in rank to Eneji in the state’s judiciary be sworn in as the Acting Chief Judge, following the expiration of Eneji’s period on September 3, 2020, after being the acting Chief Judge for two tenures of three month each.

He said: “The period between September 3 and October 3, there has been no one to assign cases in the state and to avoid the situation where litigants in the state would be denied justice, we had to adhere to the directives of the NJC and in the past two weeks we have been working on it.”

However, lawyers are rejecting the swearing in of another Acting Chief Judge, saying that they were no longer pleased with the Lacuna that has existed in the state judiciary, which has left the position vacant for 49 days without a head.

Spokesperson of the group, Effiom Ayi, said they were aggrieved by the absence of a substantive Chief Judge and found it unfortunate that things have turned out to be this way, adding that naturally, no vacuum whatsoever was allowed to exist in the position.

The lawyers reiterated that the absence of a chief judge had paralysed the effective dispensation of justice in the state.

“It has never happened in the history of the state before. Cross River has been enmeshed in a totally avoidable bickering and dirty politics as it concerns the judiciary. As at October 16, 2020, over a 100 cases, including fundamental rights action filed by citizens cannot be assigned or heard.

 “Letters of administration and probate cannot be granted, recommendations for appointment of judges, senior advocates of Nigeria and notaries public cannot be issued,” Ayi said.

Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Paul Ebiala, has said the swearing in of Justice Ita was in order and has the backing of the association in the state.

He said, “We have three branches of NBA in the state: Calabar, Ikom and Ogoja and none of these branches is against the decision of the governor to carry out the directive of NJC. Those protesting call themselves concerned lawyers and that is not the NBA as a body.”