Nweze is third Supreme Court justice to die in three years

Justice Chima Centus Nweze of the Supreme Court is dead, the court said.

Mr Nweze, 64, died Saturday after a brief illness. He was the fifth most senior jurist of the nation’s top court.

Justice Nweze was born in Obollo, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu state. He received his bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in law from the University of Nigeria in 1983, 1995 and 2001, respectively.

He was a judge of the High Court, Enugu, from 1995 to 2007 and justice of the Court of Appeal from 2008 to 2014. He was elevated to the Supreme Court on October 29, 2014.

“Hon. Justice Chima Nweze gave a sterling account of himself in the discharge of his official duties at the Supreme Court,” Akande Festus, director of press and information at the court, said in a statement Monday.

“He had largely made himself a pliable legal personality that had diligently sunk a pool of enduring legal knowledge and experience in all his judicial pronouncements.”

– Controversial ruling

Mr Nweze, in January 2020, notably delivered the dissenting judgement in the controversial Supreme Court ruling that affirmed Hope Uzodinma as governor of Imo state.

Mr Uzodinma came fourth in the official declaration by the electoral commission INEC, before the courts handed him the seat.

“This decision of the supreme court will continue to haunt our electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come,” Justice Nweze said in his ruling.

With Mr Nweze’s death, the Supreme Court now has 12 justices.

– Three deaths in three years

Mr Nweze is the third justice of the court to die since 2021. Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and Samuel Oseji died in 2021.

“Any workplace that produces this level of active mortality needs reform,” Chidi Odinkalu, professor of practice in International Human Rights Law at The Fletcher School, tweeted Monday.

Mr Odinkalu is former head of Nigeria’s human rights agency.