By Peter Dansu
Human rights lawyer, Victor Giwa, has petitioned the Chief Judge of the High Court of Justice of the Federal Capital Territory over alleged partisanship and manifest bias against a judge of the court, Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie.
Giwa and one other are standing trial over allegations of forgery.
The police had accused Giwa of forging the letterhead of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Awa Kalu.
But Awa Kalu, in a letter to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, refuted the police allegations against Bukola Ibitade and Giwa.
Despite the letter from Prof. Awa Kalu to the Inspector-General of Police formally distancing himself from the forgery and impersonation allegations against Giwa and Ibitade, the police have gone ahead to press charges against Giwa.
Chief Kalu, in his letter to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, stated that his letterhead was never forged and that he had not at any time lodged any complaint to the police about forgery of his document.
Professor Kalu, in a letter dated May 30, 2025, addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, clarified that he neither filed a complaint nor reported Mr. Giwa for allegedly forging his firm’s letterhead.
Giwa, in his letter to the CJ dated November 12, 2025, said: “My Lord, recall that I and the 2nd Defendant in this charge were charged with the offences of conspiracy, forgery, among others, as shown on the face of the Charge Sheet attached to this letter as Annexure A.
“On the 15th day of September 2025, the Court proceeded to hear the matter and issued a bench warrant against me and the 2nd Defendant for failure to attend the Court’s proceedings without assuring itself of personal service of the charge on me. On the 8th day of October 2025, when my bail application was heard and granted by the Court, the Court amended its ruling on my bail application to include an order of detention should I fail to meet the stringent conditions of bail granted to me in my absence and in the absence of my counsel.”
He said in the letter to the CJ that the Court further failed to hear his applications challenging the jurisdiction of the Court and proceeded to hear the substantive matter on October 30, 2025.
He also said that on the 12th day of November 2025, the Court suo motu identified Motion No: M/13797/25, which he filed seeking the Court to recuse itself, and started delivering its ruling on the said motion when the motion had not yet been moved.
“It took the intervention of the Legal Adviser of the Court to pause the ruling when His Lordship was about two minutes into the ruling. That was when the Court ordered the motion to be moved.
“The lawyers in court and I were shocked, and I almost fainted in the courtroom before I was called upon by the Court to move the said motion. Other lawyers in court also wondered at what had happened in the course of the proceedings, seeing the manifest bias and partisanship exhibited by the Court against me. All the lawyers in court are witnesses to the judicial absurdity and partisanship of His Lordship on the 12th of November, 2025.
“My Lord, I do not believe that I can get substantial justice from the Court of Hon. Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on the basis of manifest bias and partisanship shown against me, as justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done.
“I humbly request that Hon. Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie recuse himself from the case for manifest bias and conduct capable of ridiculing the judiciary and undermining the course of justice, based on the above-mentioned grounds and others that will be stated in an Affidavit of Facts attached to this letter.”
No comments