An Abuja-based human rights lawyer, Victor Giwa, has petitioned the Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, seeking the withdrawal of his case from a judge of the court, Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie.
Giwa is standing trial before Justice Onwuegbuzie over alleged forgery but the human rights lawyer has alleged bias on the part of the judge.
In a petition to the CJ, dated November 12, 2025, Giwa sought the judge’s withdrawal from the matter, alleging that he will not get justice before the court.
Parts of the petition read, “My Lord, recall that I and the 2nd Defendant in this charge were charged for the offences of conspiracy, forgery among others as shown on the face of the charge sheet attached to this letter as “Annexure A”.
“On the 15th day of September 2025, the court proceeded to hear the matter and issued bench warrant against me and the 2nd Defendant for failure to attend the court’s proceedings without assuring itself of personal service of the charge on me.
“On the 8th day of October 2025 when my bail application was heard and granted by the court, the court amended its ruling on my bail application to include an order of detention should I fail to meet the stringent conditions of bail granted to me in my absence and in the absence of my counsel.”
Giwa further alleged that the judge failed to hear his application challenging the jurisdiction of the court and proceeded to hear the substantive matter on 30th October, 2025.
He added, “On 12th November 2005, the court suo moto identified Motion No: M/13797/25 that I filed seeking the court to recuse itself and started delivering its ruling on the said motion when the motion had not yet been moved.
“It took the intervention of the Legal Adviser (LA) of the court to pause the ruling when His Lordship was about two minutes into the ruling, that was when the court ordered the motion to be moved.
“The lawyers in court and I were shocked and I almost fainted in the court before I was called upon by the court to move the said motion. Other lawyers in court also wondered at what had happened in the course of the proceedings, seeing the manifest bias and partisanship exhibited by the court against me. All the lawyers in court are all witness to the judicial absurdity and partisanship of His Lordship on the 12th of November 2025.
“My Lord, I do not believe that I can get substantial justice from the court of Honourable Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on the basis of manifest bias and partisanship shown against me as justice must not only be done but seen to have been done.
“I humbly request for Honourable Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie presiding over the case to recuse himself from the case for manifest bias and conducts capable of ridiculing the judiciary and undermining the course of justice based on the above-mentioned grounds and others that will be stated in an Affidavit of Facts attached to this letter.”
The police had charged Giwa for allegedly forging the letterhead paper of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief Awa Kalu.
But Awa Kalu, in a letter to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, formally distanced himself from the allegation of forgery and impersonation against Giwa.
However, despite the letter, the police went ahead to press charges against Giwa.
Kalu, in the letter dated May 30, 2025, had said his letterhead was never forged and that he had not at anytime lodged any complaint to the police about forgery of his document.
He equally clarified that he neither filed a complaint nor reported Giwa for allegedly forging his firm’s letterhead.
