By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
The Appeal Court Calabar division has lost Justice Raphael Chikwe Agbo, a very senior justice of the Nigeria Court of Appeal.
TheNiche gathered that Justice Agbo died last Monday in Calabar.
Justice Agbo, who was the second in a ranking of Justices of the Court of Appeal was called to the Bar in 1978.
He was appointed a justice of the Court of Appeal in 2005 and was due to retire from the Bench on October 21, 2023, after a brilliant and successful career as a jurist.
Recall that former Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had recently named the Enugu State Multi-Door Courthouse after the jurist who hails from the state, saying it is an “honour well-deserved.”
In perhaps what appears to be his last major judgement, Justice Agbo had led a Court of Appeal panel which upheld the conviction of Senator Bassey Akpan, the governorship candidate of Young Progressives Party (YPP) in Akwa Ibom State, over money laundering charges.
The court also ordered Akpan’s arrest.
However, the panel, sitting in Calabar varied the sentence by ordering the appellant to restitute the federal government with N204 million.
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Confirming the conviction then, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a statement said: “The court also affirmed that the appellant should restitute the sum of N240 million to the Federal Government through the EFCC and that the said restitution shall not be a prerequisite for his release from the correctional facility.
“The court finally revoked the bail and ordered the arrest of Senator Akpan.”