By Mohammed Usman
Niger State Judicial Service Commission (NSJC) has dismissed three officials including a traditional title holder.
The Nupe traditional title holder, Mohammed Abubakar, and other staff of Niger State Judiciary were penalized for varying professional misconduct.
Mohammed, who holds the traditional title, Galadiman Raba Nupe, and two other senior colleaques from the High Court division, Ahmed Usman and Usman Isah, were dismissed, while the only female among them, Fatima Sambo, was demoted by two grade levels down.
The NSJC Secretary, Hajiya Hauwa Kulu Isah, disclosed the penalty in a statement issued to journalists in Minna, the Niger State capital, yesterday.
She explained that they penalized for serious misconduct in contravention of provision 58 of the commission’s regulations.
Her words: “Three dismissed judicial staff, one of them a traditional title holder in Nupe land, Mohammed Abubakar, Galadiman Raba Nupe, was found culpable under regulation 58 (1) (1) (111) and (v) for disobedience of lawful orders (ie refusing to proceed on transfer and absent from duty from November 2023, till date without leave or reasonable cause.
“In his response to a query by the NSJC, Mohammed Abubarkar admitted to being a Personal Assistant (PA) to a traditional ruler for some years now.
“Niger State Judicial Service Commission in the exercise of its disciplinary powers under the1999 Constitution (as amended), has at its 143rd emergency meeting held on the 22nd of August 2024, dismissed three staff and demoted one under the provisions of Regulations 72 and 73 of the Commission’s Regulations 2018.”
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Ahmed Usman, a senior Registrar at the Probate Department, was indicted for gross misconduct and misappropriation of funds.
Ahmed Usman, according to the NSJC scribe, was found to have misappropriated funds to the tune of over N600, 000 by an investigating committee, adding that the action contravened provision of regulation 58 (1) (III) (V) & (VI).
Also, Usman Isah, a Principal Registrar, II, attached to Magistrate Court 3, Minna, was found guilty of being absent from duty without leave or reasonable cause, under regulation 58 (1) (III).
He was found to have abandoned his duty post for over six (6) months, she said.
Fatima Sambo, a senior Registrar at the Probate Department, was found guilty of negligent conduct and misappropriation of probate funds also by an investigating committee.
Meanwhile, findings indicated other sins of Mohammed Abubakar to include alleged distortion of facts that influenced the decision of the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, who is also the Chairman Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers in the Kopako traditional stool feud.
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