June 22, 2026
Justice Peter Odo Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja was far less known until June 15, 2026 when an ill-considered judgement he delivered led to political eruption in the country. It was capable of derailing the political process and, several persons and organisations including the judiciary, scrambled to douse the fires its was beginning to ignite. Not since the country’s return to the democratic path twenty six years ago, has a judgement attracted this much opprobrium with no known body including its possible beneficiaries, raising a voice in support.
My mind raced back to British jurist, Lord Denning who famously declared in 1964: “Justice has no place in darkness or secrecy. When a judge sits on a case, he himself is on trial… If he is suspicious, biased, or unfair, then the judge is the one who is condemned in the eyes of public opinion.” But these words of wisdom seem not to have any meaning to Justice Lifu, shockingly, a former lecturer of Public and International Law, University of Ibadan. For me, what was more distressing was that despite the uproar, Justice Lifu seemed oblivious of the damage he had done to the body polity, the judiciary and his thirty five years post-call to bar history.
