By Ebunoluwa Sessou

Justice Akon Ikpeme is the current Chief Judge in Cross Rivers State, Calabar. She assumed the position as a substantial Chief Judge on January 28, 2021. WO X-rays the incidences preceding her present position in this excerpt.

January 9, 2020

Cross-Rivers State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade wrote a letter to the State House of Assembly for Justice Ikpeme to be confirmed Chief Judge of the State.

March 3, 2020

Justice Ikpeme started functioning as the acting Chief Judge of the state, following the retirement of the former Chief Judge, Justice Michael Edem, and was expected to be confirmed by the lawmakers.

March 3, 2020

The Cross River State House of Assembly rejected the confirmation of Justice Akon Ikpeme as substantive Chief Judge (CJ) of the state. They claimed she hailed from Akwa Ibom State although married to a Cross River man.

To sustain his position, Ayade had inaugurated a separate State Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which nominated a junior judge, Justice Maurice Eneji to the National Judicial Council (NJC) as Acting Chief Judge.

March 23, 2020

The Acting Chief Judge of Cross River State, Justice Maurice Odey Eneji, constituted the Local Government Election Tribunal in the three senatorial districts of the state. According to him, it was in line with the exercise of powers conferred on him by section 99 of the Cross River State Local Government Law, 2007 and all other powers enabling him.

October 2020

Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, as well as other human right groups rose to challenge the move by the Cross River State Assembly.

November 2020

Following the injustice and act of discrimination meted on Justice Akon Ikpeme to be conferred as the Substantive Chief Judge of Cross River by the state House of Assembly, various women activists and the President Women in Politics and President National Council for Women Societies, Nigeria, have both condemned and criticized what they describe to be the “unreliable reason” for the disqualification of Justice Akon Ikpeme as the Chief Judge of Cross River by the state House of Assembly.

January 28, 2021

Cross River State House of Assembly finally confirmed Justice Akon Bassey Ikpeme as the substantive Chief Judge of the State.

The confirmation which was done at the floor of the State House of Assembly on Thursday, January 28, lasted for less than fifteen minutes.

The Clerk of the House, Bassey Ekpenyong had read a letter from the state governor, Prof. Ben Ayade with reference SSG/S/300/VOL.XVIX/550, dated 20 January 2021 and signed by the Secretary to the Cross River State Government, Barr Tina Banku Agbor which conveyed the request for the confirmation.