{"id":62888,"date":"2025-03-17T15:50:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T15:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=62888"},"modified":"2025-03-17T15:50:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T15:50:47","slug":"protesters-storm-abuja-over-benue-judicial-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/03\/17\/protesters-storm-abuja-over-benue-judicial-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters Storm Abuja Over Benue Judicial Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A coalition of civil society groups staged a protest in Abuja on Monday, demanding urgent intervention from President Bola Tinubu and Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun, over an escalating judicial crisis in Benue State.<\/p>\n<p>Gathering at the Three Arms Zone, the demonstrators carried placards warning that Nigeria\u2019s democracy is under threat and called on the Chief Justice to act decisively.<\/p>\n<p>Comrade Igwe Ude Umanta, the lead convener, accused Benue State Chief Judge, Maurice Ikpambese, of abusing judicial power by allowing a waiver for petitioners at the Local Government Election Tribunal, bypassing a constitutional requirement for security deposits.<\/p>\n<p>He also condemned Ikpambese\u2019s controversial decision to relocate the tribunal to Abuja, arguing that it violated electoral laws.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions escalated when a Federal High Court in Makurdi ruled on March 7, 2025, that the tribunal must sit in Benue, only for an FCT High Court under Justice M. M. Adamu to issue a contradictory ruling a week later, permitting proceedings in Abuja.<\/p>\n<p>The protesters accused powerful politicians of using security forces to intimidate those opposing the tribunal\u2019s relocation.<\/p>\n<p>Despite fears of arrests, they vowed to petition the judiciary and fight for legal integrity.<\/p>\n<p>The coalition urged President Tinubu and the Chief Justice to act swiftly, warning that the credibility of Nigeria\u2019s judiciary is at stake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal A coalition of civil society groups staged a protest in Abuja on Monday, demanding urgent intervention from President Bola Tinubu and Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun, over an escalating judicial crisis in Benue State. Gathering at the Three Arms Zone, the demonstrators carried placards warning that Nigeria\u2019s democracy is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":62889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-62888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62890,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62888\/revisions\/62890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}