OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR UMO ENO, PhD: Neglect of Competent Annang Lawyers and Private Lawyers in The Appointment of Judges: Appeal for a Review

His Excellency, 
Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, Ph.D
The Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State

Your Excellency,

Our revered Governor, we  unreservedly pour commendations on you for the giant strides in the political, economical and socio-cultural  polity of our beloved state. This, has widely and roundly, earned you a thumbs-up and endeared you to the good people of Akwa Ibom State

Part of these engraved good deeds is orchestrated by your unshifted and dogged disposition to fairness and equity which has, since your emergence as the Governor, been your proud DNA in every strata of the polity including several appointments made by our dear Governor. 

Your Excellency, we are drained in our worries and drenched to our emaciated marrows that, this disposition of His Excellency, which without his knowledge, may be punctuated, mutilated and punctured by the would-be appointment of the Judges 

Your Excellency, it might interest you to know that, a community x-ray of the last appointments into the Judiciary(Magistracy and Judges)   have twerked, gilted and petrified the chronometer of long history of competence and federal character by  relegating competent private legal practitioners(Private Bar) and the Annang people in the legal profession. 

Your Excellency, a quick but worthy glance at our Rule 3(4) of the Revised NJC Guidelines and Procedural Rules
Provides thus:
"In carrying out the shortlisting exercise, the Head of Court shall take into consideration, as much as possible professional expertise, seniority at the Bar or the Bench, Federal Character or geographical spread where necessary and possible, without compromising the cherished independence of the Judiciary or allowing politics permeate or influence the appointment and avoid recommending any person whose reputation had been tarnished."

Your Excellency, posterity will not be kind to us, in the eyes of man and God which we so hold dear, that out of six(6) Judges recommended for appointment, no Annang is represented, let alone the private Bar that continues to be marginalized ( only one out of six). Your Excellency, this is suffering in the boulevard of misery---suffering in the mist of plenty. No Annang man is deemed 'competent'! The private Bar remains unsalvaged, weak and helpless except your swift intervention. Your Excellency, a short trip to the last appointments into the Magistracy and the would-be appointments would reveal an irresistible conclusion that 95% of recent appointments into the Judiciary has been monopolized by the Public Bar with no commensurate quota for the Private Bar and the Annang legal practitioners. 

Your Excellency, we therefore  crave your deepest and heartiest indulgence to cause a review to accommodate the Annang Lawyers (whom have been neglected for donkey years) and the private Bar that has been relegated to the background even in the mist of intelligent and competent practitioners for years.
Sir, history will be kind to you and evidently written in gold for breaking this negative jinx notwithstanding whose ox is gored. May our generation, generation after and our children children beat their chests , in ecstacy and fulfillment , that in the days of His Excellency( A man of mercurial fairness and justice) that this anomaly was indeed corrected. 

Sir, we only wish to be carried along. We harbour no grudges for the Public Bar. We also mean well for our profession, our tool of trade and our beloved state.

 While we are immensely happy for the would-be appointees, we pour our congratulations on them, praying for God's wisdom in their respective journeys. 

Thus, Your Excellency, while blessing God for a man of honor like you, we are unwavered and unmoved in our dogged conviction that our harmless request would be granted. 

We arise !


Meti M. Ukpeh, Esq. 
[Human Rights Lawyer]

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