LPDC boss, Justice Eri, refuses to step down over alleged N6bn fraud

 BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

ABUJA-The embattled administrator of the National Judicial Institute, NJI, Justice Umaru Eri, yesterday, adduced reasons why he would not step down as the chairman of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, following on-going probe of his official conduct by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.

The anti-graft agency is currently investigating allegations of corruption that were levelled against the NJI boss who is equally the chairman of the LPDC.

The petitioners fingered him as one of the judicial officers that benefited from the N6 billion that was allegedly siphoned from the coffers of that institution, an allegation he has since refuted.

Reacting to a recent clamour for him to step-down as the chairman of LPDC, Eri, through his lead counsel, Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, SAN, dared his adversaries yesterday to go ahead and prove his complicity in the alleged fraud, saying he would remain in that position pending when a criminal charge is instituted against him before a competent court of law.

According to a statement he issued through his lawyer yesterday, “to set the record straight, there is no criminal charge or trial initiated or pending against Hon Justice Umaru Eri (Rtd.).

The only pending litigation in this matter is a civil action filed by Prof S.A. Adesanya, SAN, pending at the Federal High Court, Abuja, where he is seeking, among other reliefs, for an order directing Justice Eri to step aside as the Chairman of the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee and appointing in his stead, an interim Chairman to oversee the affairs of that Committee pending his investigation by the ICPC.