Nweze, s’court judge who opposed colleagues over Uzodinma’s election, is dead

Chima Centus Nweze, a justice of the supreme court, is dead.

Sources confirmed to TheCable that he died on Sunday evening at the age of 64.

He was said to have been ill but was discharged from the hospital some days ago.

Nweze was the fifth most senior justice of the supreme court. With his death, the number of apex court justices has further reduced to 12.

The jurist, who was born on September 25, 1958, bagged all his degrees – from bachelors to Ph.D – from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

He attended St John Cross Seminary, Nsukka between 1972 and 1977.

Nweze was called to the bar in 1984 and completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Bauchi in 1985.

He became a judge of Enugu state high court in 1995.

He has served as chairman of Ogun state governorship and legislative houses election petition tribunal in 1999; chairman, robbery and firearms tribunal, Nsukka, 1998 and 1999; and member, Ondo state local government election petition tribunal in 1999.

On February 15, 2008, he was elevated to the court of appeal and served until October 2014, when he was elevated to the supreme court of Nigeria on October 29, 2014.

‘JUDGMENT WILL HAUNT US FOR A LONG TIME’

In January 2020, Nweze had opposed his colleagues who affirmed Hope Uzodinma as the duly elected governor of Imo state.

In his dissenting judgment, Nweze asked the court to set aside the January 14 ruling that removed Emeka Ihedioha from office, describing it as a nullity and in bad faith.

He also nullified the declaration of Uzodinma as governor on account of “wrong declaration” and held that Uzodinma misled the court into an unjust conclusion with the unverified votes in 388 polling units.

“This decision of the supreme court will continue to haunt our electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come,” he said.

Nweze was part of the supreme court panel that refused Atiku Abubakar’s request to inspect servers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

At the time, Atiku was challenging the declaration of Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the 2019 presidential election.