Justice Tsoho’s mental, emotional abilities questioned

Tsoho: The unstable judge

Serious questions are being asked as to whether Justice John Tsoho of Federal High Court, Abuja, has the mental ability and emotional stability to handle a case of the magnitude of Nnamdi Kanu versus Nigerian government. Many people who spoke to The Biafra Telegraph said the case was loaded with so much sentiment and controversy that it would take a judge of great mental strength, ability and emotional strength to handle it.

Majority of those who spoke did not think Tsoho had it.

Nnamdi Kanu, the Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Radio Biafra, was abducted by Muhammadu Buhari’s men of the Directorate of State Security Service (DSSS) on October last year, and slammed with trumped up charges bordering on treason.

Ever since Tsoho took over the case, he has been trying to cope with it, just as people have been observing him. However, the last session, Monday, March 7, where he reversed himself on an earlier decision he took has exposed him. He had on February 19, ruled against the DSSS producing hooded witnesses against the accused. But during the last session on Monday, March 19, he behaved like an unstable character, reversing himself and ruling that prosecution witnesses should be screened off from the court while they testify.

It was a decision that did not go down well with the defence team, making the leading Council, Chuka Muoma to state: “The ruling of today, what the court decided today, is a deviation from the ruling of the court made on the 19th February ... This is because what court refused to the prosecution on 19th, is the same thing it indirectly granted today”

The Biafran Telegraph inquest revealed that many Biafrans, even Nigerians, saw the development as prove that the judge was not a stable character and that his mental ability and emotional stability was in doubt. Among many people who held this view was Eberechi Obidike (not his real name), but a practicing lawyer in Nigerian and one a legal advisers of IPOB in Anambra State. He told The Biafran Telegraph that he started suspecting Tsoho’s mental strength when he saw how easily the man got angry in court on Monday. He said the judge gave himself out as someone not in total control of his emotions and feelings.

“I don’t usually like to discuss judges’ he said ‘but because this involves my country, Biafra, I want to say that I am not sure this man has the mental and emotional ability to handle this case. This is not a small case; it is a case between two countries – Biafra and Nigeria – and it should not just be handled by any kind of judge.”

Another respondent, a Nigerian said the problem with the judge was his obsession with his next promotion and his ever willingness to act to please the powers that could make the promotion happen.

Tim Tochukwu
for Biafra Choice Writers