By Valentine Amanze
The Vice Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general election, Mr. Peter Obi, has described as ‘shocking and devastating’, the news of the death of the Chief Justice of Yobe State, Justice Garuba Musa Nabaruma.
Recalling the exploits of Justice Nabaruma at the bench, Obi said that he headed the 2003 Election Tribunal in Anambra State, which after three years of painstaking deliberations declared him the rightful winner of the election, the first of such in Nigeria.
Obi who also recalled that the declaration came at a time the recovery of stolen mandates in Nigerian courts seemed an impossibility, noted that it took courage, principled stand on issues and fear of God for any Judge to have made that declaration at the time he and his colleagues did.
“Though Justice Nabaruma is dead,” Obi said, “he will remain a compass for the judiciary in its search for justice, especially at this time of trial.
“Besides, his contributions to the development of the country’s jurisprudence would remain indelible in the history of the judiciary.”
Describing Nabaruma as a “good man”, Obi prayed to God who called him home, to grant him eternal repose and grant those he left to mourn him the courage to accept His will. Obi who consoled the family, the Judiciary, the government and people of Yobe State, said that such a judge would remain a proof of the saying that “the judiciary is the last hope for the common man.”
