Akwa lbom Judiciary And Dispensation Of Criminal Justice

By Idongesit Akan 

 Since the creation of Akwa lbom State 38 years ago, the Judiciary has consciously dispensed justice to protect the interest of the public in civil and criminal matters, maintain peace and order in the State and encourage investment opportunities, among other things.
The Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2022 establishes procedures to ensure the efficiency and speedy dispensation of criminal trials, focusing on managing cases effectively and reducing delays.
   The Chief Judge issues practice directions to implement these laws, ensure compliance and promote fair case management, build and develop human capacity and infrastructure in the sector.
A retrospect look at the succession and impact created within the Judiciary system in the State since 1987 through respective Chief Judges, indicated that late Justice Mbat Idiong Udofia Usoro, the pioneer Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom, took off with a mission to put a sound and vibrant administrative structure on ground, at least with the few courts inherited in what was then called the Mainland part of erstwhille Cross River State.
Though Justice Usoro was eased out of the system due to ill health, his sound administrative vision was not lost.
Justice Robert Nkop came in and advocated an independent Judiciary. He drummed loudly into the ears of the military regime and the early part of civilian regime why the Judiciary should no longer be spoon-fed but should be free from the bondage of begging for funds to execute its programmes.
Akwa lbom Judiciary, under Justice Nkop was very pragmatic and decisive as exemplified in the fearless and landmark judgement often delivered by courageous judges like Justice Utibe Udofia and others, which were not palatable to government of the day, but was justified in the eye of the law, generally. For a conducive working environment and to promote effective judicial service delivery, Justice Nkop completed and occupied the first storey building in the Judiciary Headquarters, before other ‘tenants’, while more judges were appointed and new cars given as official vehicles to judges who hitherto were conveyed to their offices with rickety cars that used to break down on the road, thereby exposing the judicial officers’ then to public ridicule.
Eased out by retirement after a fulfilled stewardship, Nkop was succeeded by a quiet, intelligent jurist in the person of Justice Effiong David Idiong.
As one who had followed the administrative pattern in the Judiciary service and knew all hindrances that were capable of frustrating his administration, Justice Idiong opted for massive renovations of district courts, Magistrate courts, and built an auditorium at the Judiciary headquarters with an electric current-speed. Building absolute confidence in his Chief Registrar, Archibong Edet Archibong Esq, now Administrative Judge of Uyo, Justice Idiong offered the chief registrar a free-hand to execute all approved projects without any interference.
Indeed Justice Idiong’s tenure witness massive development in infrastructure than any other administration. Workers in the Judiciary service will not forget in a haste the two Toyota Coaster Buses bought by that administration to convey them to and from work on a daily basis, neither will lawyers and litigants ever forget the fuel pump that sells fuel to people doing business in the court on a daily basis till date.
Next was Justice Eno Otu as the fourth Chief Judge of Akwa lbom. Although her tenure was just one year before she retired from service, Justice Out’s name went into history books as the first woman Chief Judge of the State.This was a big boost for women who had been clamouring for empowerment.
Justice Otu, in spite of her short tenure was applauded for her empowerment policy to judicial officers and workers. During her days many were employed as workers in the Judiciary, while a few Magistrates were added to the judicial officers in the system.
The baton of leadership was shifted to Justice Idongesit Ntem-Isua, another woman, and former Solicitor-General of the state, high court judge and advocate of gender equality. During Justice Ntem-Isua’s tenure, new vehicles were distributed to all heads of Directorates in Akwa lbom Judiciary, among other achievements.
Justice Stephen Okon, who succeeded Justice Ntem-Isua, encouraged the Multi-Door Court Houses services which helps litigants to settle matters amicably without exposing themselves to endless litigation process in the regular court, as well as quick justice delivery. Justice Okon’s administration trained and retrained Judicial Staff for effective discharge of their duties.
Justice Godwin Jack Abraham took over from Justice Okon. During his leadership of the Judiciary in the State, the immediate past governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, signed into law, the Anti-Cultism And Other Violent Behavior Prohibition Act, 2018, which prosecuted no fewer than 250 persons in the state. Nobody is spared no matter how highly placed or connected, once arrested and investigated they are charged to court and if found guilty, are sentence to prison.
Justice Abraham built a high court complex in Oruk Anam, renovated courts in other local government areas and employed Judges and other Judicial officers for effective administration of justice.
The present Chief Judge, Justice Ekaete Obot, who assumed duty on June 30, 2021 as the 8th chief Judge upon the retirement of Justice Abraham, disposed more than 16,051 cases in various cadres of courts in Akwa Ibom and a total of 10,052 court matters within 2022/2023 legal year and 9,861 at the end of the 2024/2025 legal year, bringing a grand total of 35,965 cases for the few years she had been at the helm of affairs of Akwa Ibom State Judiciary.
The Chief Judge, with the approval of Governor Umo Eno, has sworn in 182 Customary Courts members to serve in the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom to make justice accessible to all at the grassroots level. A move to strengthen years grassroots justice, emphasising their role in fair and accessible justice. 
The Judiciary has also appointed two new Chief Registrars for the High Court of Justice and the Customary Court of Appeal, namely: Affiong Victor Usimka Esq, who replaced Winifred Umohandi, who is now a High Court Judge and Dr Imaobong Okokon Essien, now late, as the Chief Registrar, Customary Court of Appeal, Akwa Ibom State.
The governor approved the appointment of six new Judges who were sworn into office. They are Justice Winifred Umohandi, Justice Bassey Ekanem, Justice Iwakaowo Nkop, Justice Comfort Morrison, Justice Ekpo Ntekim and Justice Sharon Eddie, who are all working assiduously to achieve the objectives of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2022.
Akwa Ibom courts have, over the years, lived up to its responsibilities in handling criminal cases, including the passing of landmark judgments in criminal matters, not minding who is involved.
Recently, the Akwa Ibom High Courts have sentenced two armed robbers to death by hanging for robbing tricycle operators at gunpoint in Uyo, the capital city. One of the condemned criminals is Lance Corporal Promise Okokon Usoro, a dismissed soldier of the 6 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Ibagwa Barracks, in Abak Local Government Area. Usoro, a 41yearold native of Ikot Osom in Abak, armed with an AK47, was found guilty of robbing one Peter Daniel Okon of his tricycle along Idoro Road, Uyo, on the night of February 10, 2013, at gunpoint.
  He had earlier faced a courtmartial, resulting in his dismissal from the army before being handed over to the Nigeria Police for prosecution. In his confessional statement, Usoro admitted to participating in at least three armed robbery operations targeting tricyclists in Uyo, alongside an accomplice identified as J.J., currently at large. He confessed that one of the stolen tricycles was sold by J.J., and he received a share of N50,000 from the proceeds.
  The second convict, Odinaka Emmanuel Victor, 32, from Osisioma in Abia State, also confessed to robbing another victim, Anyanwu Chidi Francis, on February 14, 2013, along Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo, while armed with an AK47 rifle in the company of the dismissed soldier. Odinaka revealed in his statement that he had been involved in tricyclesnatching operations in Port Harcourt, led by one Engineer Obuigwe, adding that on February 10, 2013, he was contacted by a gang member named James, who brought him to Uyo in a Passat car for an operation. They reportedly picked up the soldier at the barracks and proceeded to rob a tricyclist. Odinaka was later arrested with the stolen tricycle, while the others fled.
   The duo stood trial alongside a third accused person, Ndifreke Willie Udo, 37, a native of Odoro Ikot in Essien Udim Local Government Area, who was residing in Port Harcourt at the time of the incident.
   Delivering judgment 12 years after the crime, the trial judge, Justice Archibong Archibong, held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against Lance Corporal Usoro and Odinaka Victor. However, the court discharged and acquitted the third defendant, Ndifreke Udo, for lack of sufficient evidence linking him to the crime. The court consequently sentenced the two convicted men, Promise Okokon Usoro and Odinaka Victor, to death by hanging.
The State High Court sitting in Uyo also sentenced a 29-year-old man, Akaninyene Thomas Okpon, to death by hanging for the gruesome murder of his elder brother, Friday Thomas Enyenokpon, whom he accused of being a witch and responsible for his life’s misfortunes. The incident, which occurred on April 8, 2018, in Ikot Abasi Asutan, Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area, involved Akaninyene, a father of three children and his late brother, 37 year-old Ime Thomas Okpon, who was co-accused but died in custody before the conclusion of the trial. 
   The two siblings ambushed their blood brother in a bush popularly called “Usung Atan” farmland in Ikot Abasi Asutan, where he had gone to check his hunting traps, killed him with machete cuts, beheaded and buried the head separately, an act that shocked and devastated the community.
   Delivering judgment in Suit No. HU/5C/2019, the trial judge, Justice Okon Okon, found that the prosecution had established its case beyond reasonable doubt, relying on the defendant’s confessional statement and corroborating evidence. The Court noted that the defendant, a primary three dropout had earlier issued threats to eliminate the deceased and others in the family and later led the Police to the crime scene where the remains of the deceased were recovered.
In his judgement, Justice Okon declared: “The sentence of the Court upon you, AKANINYENE THOMAS OKPON, is that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead.” The Court also ordered the forfeiture of the murder weapons: two machetes marked as Exhibits 1–1A to the State.
In another criminal case, a 30-year-old man, Joshua Okon Archibong, was sentenced to death by hanging by the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, for his involvement in series of violent crimes including armed robbery, murder and kidnapping along the Uruan and Oron waterways. Archibong, a native of Ekpene Ibia in Uruan Local Government Area and member of a notorious gang of sea pirates, was convicted on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy and armed robbery. He met his waterloo on November 4, 2019, during one of his operations in Ndon Ebom village, Uruan, where he alongside one Udeme and Isaac, now at large, robbed motorcyclists and roads users one of whom raised the alarm which attracted the villagers who arrested him while his gang members escaped. 
   Popularly known as “Benji Kasiah,” the convict, who is a primary school dropout, had confessed in his extrajudicial statement to participating in an attack in February 2019 on a boat ferrying passengers, rice, and fish from Adadia Beach, and in April 2019, during another operation at Akpa Inne Waterways, the gang shot two vigilante members from Esuk Odu village who attempted to confront them. Archibong revealed that the gang maintained hideouts in Inne Emman Village and Ufak Ibuot Creek in Uruan, where they stored stolen goods and held kidnap victims, including an expatriate abducted at a construction site in Mbiaya Uruan. 
He also confessed to the murder of a police sergeant and the kidnapping of two individuals, for whom they collected a ransom of N200,000 in December 2018. In one particularly gruesome account, the convict admitted to shooting a boat driver on 15th August 2019 at Ufak Ibuot Waterway for refusing to stop the vessel, an action which resulted in a stray bullet killing a pregnant woman onboard. He also disclosed that he sought spiritual protection from a native doctor in Oku Iboku, Itu Local Government Area, to evade police arrest.
Delivering judgment, the presiding judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, held that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and found Archibong guilty of murder and armed robbery, declaring that Joshua Okon Archibong, be hanged by the neck until he is dead or by lethal injection. 
With the judgment, the court has brought closure to one of the state’s most high-profile criminal cases, marking a significant victory in the fight against sea piracy and violent crime in Akwa Ibom waterways.
In another criminal case, Justice Eno Isangidihi of Abak High Court Division, sentenced one Akaninyene Johnson Nkonduok, male, to death by hanging for murder. According to the Court record, the tragic incident that led to the death sentence on the accused person took place at Utu Ikot Imonte village in Abak Local Government Area, sometime in 2021. Facts of the case file marked, Ha/35c/2021, have it that the town crier of the village, Imoh Amos, on one fateful Friday evening, on the authority of the village leadership, announced a compulsory sanitation exercise the following day in the village. It was also compulsory for all the youths in the village to participate, failure of which they would pay a fixed fine.
The town crier and others, according to the prosecuting State Counsel, Mrs. Nancy Idungafa, went to the convicted person to find out why he failed to participate in the village sanitation. The court heard that the convict only responded by drawing up a machete and inflicting severe machete cuts that resulted in the death of Imoh Amos. He was immediately arrested and eventually arraigned before the high court. After a long legal battle by the defence counsel, Utibe Nwoko, of the Nwoko & Co. legal firm, the court sentenced the accused to death by hanging.
  Also, the Court, sitting in Uyo, sentenced one Akpaniko-Abasi Okon James to death for the murder of his friend, Ephraim Edet Okon. Akpaniko, son of the late Rev. Okon J. Essien of 32 Gibbs Street, Uyo, who was repatriated from the United States few years ago, was accused to have snuffed out life from one master Ephraim, 22, on May 12, 2021, while the deceased went to recover N30,000 owed him by the American returnee. Ephraim, according to eye witness, on approaching Akpaniko in his house, was asked to wait for Akpaniko to arrange cash for him.
   While the victim was still waiting, Akpaniko allegedly entered one unregistered Lexus car left behind by his deceased parents and drove it with speed against the victim, overrunning him. Akpaniko was said to have sped off to the nearest police patrol team and complained that he was attacked by kidnappers. After violently colliding with Ephraim, the victim was thrown onto the car’s windscreen. Akpaniko then accelerated, causing Ephraim to be thrown off the car on the tarred road.
He (Akpaniko-Abasi) subsequently reversed the vehicle, and crushed Ephraim’s legs, causing the victim to sustain multiple injuries and resulting in his untimely death.
  The state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Itim Itim, Esq, reminded the court about the convincing evidence marshaled against the suspect, and stressed the need to sentence him to death to serve as a deterrent to others. Earlier, Ekpenyong Ntekim, the defendant’s lawyer, had pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy. “Having lost a young man, it would have been improper to lose another young man to death,” Ntekim pleaded. This was as the suspect had pleaded with the court to set him free that he would repent of the ‘sin’ and be useful to the society.
In his judgement, the presiding Judge, Justice Bassey Nkanang, reminded Akpaniko-Abasi, a native of Nung Uyo Idoro in Uyo Local Government Area, that he had committed a similar crime but was freed by a court. Nkanang passed judgement that he would be hanged on his neck until he is pronounced dead, adding, ‘‘May God have mercy on you.’’
Also, under the present administration of Pastor Umo Eno, Akwa Ibom State High Court, sitting in Uyo, nullified the ancient traditional practice in the State, in a landmark judgement, when it ordered an indigene of Itiam Etoi in Uyo Local Government Area to pay N20 million to two of his nieces for breaching their fundamental human rights of stopping them from inheriting their late father’s property.
It could be observed that Akwa Ibom State Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2022, enacted to replace a decades-old law, ensures efficient management of criminal justice institutions and promotes the speedy dispensation of justice while protecting the rights of suspects, defendants, and victims. The judiciary has shown the commitment to upholding the principles of orderliness as well as security of lives and property in Akwa lbom towards a peaceful and crime-free State.