A magistrate, Chinedu Agama, on Thursday appeared before a 5-man panel set up by the Ebonyi State Judicial Service Commission(JSC) to probe “illegality” traced to him.
The sitting was conducted behind closed doors with no journalists or lawyers allowed to witness the trial.
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The panel has Magistrate U.N.O Nweze as Chairman, Magistrate Job Orude Secretary, Bar. Fidelis Amaechi Iteshi and two females as members.
Magistrate Agama had last week been accused of having granted bail to a Youth Leader, Obinna Iteshi along side two others Ngamgbo Chukwunonso and Nwakpa Chibuzor.
Two weeks ago, the trio, who are members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) faction led by one Fred Udogu, were arraigned on a four-count charge bothering on felony, conspiracy, breaking and entry.
There have been supremacy battle between the two factions of the state PDP led by Chief Onyekachi Nwebonyi and the caretaker committee led by Chief Udeogu.
Speaking with journalists after the sitting which lasted for about two hours, the Panel Chairman described the matter as an in-house issue.
“What we are doing here is a very small Administrative Panel to look into complaints against one of us and of course, you know in organization like this there are some inbuilt mechanism to look into complaints against supposedly erring staff.
“So, not everything that requires to be made public in court at a stage. If it were judicial panel, probably we allow journalists to come in and cover the proceedings but this one is an in-house something. We are a committee set up by the judicial service commission. So, we are going to report back to them.
“It is them that will now look at what we have done, look into it critically and take a decision”, he explained.
Bail
Magistrate Agama granted the suspects bail in the sum of N50,000.00 each, with one surety in like sum.
Daily Trust gathered that after the bail was granted, Agama was queried and transferred out of the state judicial headquarters in Abakaliki to Onueke, Ezza South Local Government Area of the state.
Agama’s purported transfer was said to have been masterminded by the state judicial management.
