Valedictory Speech: NBA Makurdi Chair, J.K.Ishember, Eulogizes Late Justice Joseph Tine Tur

Members of the legal community both the Bar and the Bench
gathered at the State High Court Makurdi to hold a valedictory
court session in honour of Court of Appeal Justice, Honourable
Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA.

At the valedictory speech of the NBA Makurdi branch, J. K.
Ishember Esq. obtained by TheNigerialawyer dated 1st November
2019, he described the late Justice as one of the oracles of
the Benue legal community who has affected eternity for no one can
tell where his influence stops!

Read his full speech 

HONOURABLE JUSTICE JOSEPH TINE TUR, JCA
(DECEASED)

FINAL ADDRESS OF THE BENUE BAR IN SUPPORT OF MOTION ON NOTICE
UNDER THE INHERENT JURISDICTION OF THIS HONOURABLE COURT.

 Protocol:

2.0     Introduction:

May it please my Lords, your Excellencies, appearing at this
special court session are J. K. Ishember Esq. (Chairman NBA Makurdi
Branch), Malami Lillian Aondoakaa Esq. (Chairman NBA Gboko Branch),
Prince Innocent Ochoga (Chairman NBA Otukpo Branch) and innumerable
members of the Benue Bar all present in court today. We highly
appreciate the person/presence of the third Vice President of the
Nigerian Bar Association, the Learned T. T. Igba Esq. We have a
brief of the Benue Legal, Religious and Cultural Communities.

This is the Final Written Address of the Benue Bar filed in
reaction to the application ably moved by the leader of the Benue
Bar – The Honourable Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice,
Benue State – the learned Michael Gusa Esq. praying for an order of
committal to earth of the lifeless body of our worthy ambassador,
friend, counselor, father, Evangelist and Benefactor, the
Distinguished
             Honourable
Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA. 

My Lords, we are very reluctant to support the application just
moved by the Leader of the Benue Bar.  We pray my Lords’
patience to accord us fair hearing and be persuaded to give a well
considered ruling.

3.0     Legal Submission:

Section 291 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria provides that a judicial officer appointed to the Supreme
Court or the Court of Appeal may retire when he attains the age of
Sixty – Five years and he shall cease to hold office when he
attains the age of seventy years. This is the pith and substance of
our address to this Honourable Court. As shall be clearly shown
hereunder, the Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur,
JCA had celebrated only Sixty – Three birthdays before the
filing of this application.

As rightly submitted by the Leader of the Benue Bar, the
Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA was born
on the 19^th day of December 1955 to the family of late
Pa Hilekaan and late Mama Kukase Tur of Tse Aminde, Tombo Mbalagh,
Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State. He obseved his primary
education at Practicing Primary School Yelwa, Bauchi State from
1964 to 1965, moved to Saint Mary’s Catholic Primary School Samaru
– Zaria, Kaduna from 1966 – 1968, then Township Primary School Jos,
1968 and finally at St. Jariaths Catholic Primary School Bukuru,
Plateau State in 1969.

The Honourable Justice  Joseph Tine Tur,
JCA proceeded to the Boy’s Secondary school Gindiri, Mangu
Local Government Area of Plateau State for his secondary education
from 1970 to 1974. The next year he gained admission into the
premier faculty of law in Nigeria – the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, Enugu Campus where he was awarded the Bachelor of Laws LL.B
(Hons.) (Nig.) in 1979 and upon successful completion of studies at
the Nigerian Law School, was called to the Nigerian Bar in
1980.

My Lords, your Excellencies, the Honourable
Justice  Joseph Tine Tur, JCA began his legal career
at Rivers State Ministry of Justice where he observed the
compulsory National Youth Service from 1980 to 1981. He continued
his pupilage after the Youth Service at the law firm of B. M. Wifa
SAN & co., Port Harcourt, Rivers State from 1981 to 1982 before
he returned to Benue State to take an appointment with the Benue
State Judiciary as a Magistrate in 1982.  After a year at the
Lower Bench, the Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur,
JCA bounced back to private legal practice in 1983 where
he diligently practised at Agan Yaji & Co., Gboko, Benue State
and proceeded to manage Baba Adi & Co. Gboko, Benue State from
1984 to 1985 before he established Tine Tur & Co. Gboko, Benue
State in 1985. The Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur,
JCA skillfully directed proceedings at Tine Tur & Co.
where he nurtured great legal minds like the erstwhile Honourable
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice – Chief
Michael Kaase Aondoakaa SAN.

Bowing to pressure to serve the state again, the
Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA accepted
appointment to serve as the Director of Public Prosecution, Benue
State Ministry of Justice in 1992 where he exuded excellence until
his appointment as a Judge of the High Court, Benue State Judiciary
on the 3^rd day of February 1993.

Prior to his appointment as a Judge of the High Court, the
Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA served
Benue State as Chairman, Local Government Election Petition
Tribunal No. 2, in 1991 while he was yet in private legal practice.
Sitting as a High Court Judge of the Benue State Judiciary, the
Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA
distinguished himself as a cerebral jurist reminiscent of the
English Lord Denning. Little wonder, his judgments as a High Court
Judge were considered worthy of reporting to serve as permanent
record for the development of our jurisprudence.   See
Judgment of Tine Tur J. (as he then was) delivered on
19^th day of February 2007 reported as:

John Asula Nyuma v. John Akor Aor & 2 Ors. (2008)
All FWLR (Pt. 439) 571.

The Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA
also served severally as Member/ Chairman of Governorship and State
Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal across the Nation and
Chairman, Benue State Judicial Commission of Inquiry into execution
of contracts/projects (1999 – 2003).

The Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur, JCA was
elevated to the Court of Appeal on the 16^th day of July
2010. Within succeeding nine years, my Lord has traversed the
length and breadth of Nigeria as a Justice of the Court of Appeal
where he served in the following Judicial Divisions: Kaduna
Division (2010 – 2011), Calabar Division (2011 – 2013), Abuja
Division (2013 – 2014), Jos Division (2014 – 2016), Enugu Division
(2016 – 2018) and finally the Makurdi Judicial Division from 2018
till he was translated to the Supreme Celestial realm on the
3^rd day of October 2019.

My Lords, Your Excellencies, the Honourable Justice
Joseph Tine Tur, JCA remains one of the oracles of the
Benue legal community who has affected eternity for no one can tell
where his influence stops!  We resist the temptation to savor
his judgments littered in our law reports. As rightly opined by a
commentator, “he brought fresh revolution to judgment writing … he
simplified judgment writing; made it readable and elaborate for
research purposes.” The Benue legal community attests to the
potency of Raphael Ajunwa v. Commissioner of Police.
 Less than a year at the Court of Appeal my Lord bequeathed
another compendium of criminal law and procedure. See Agundi V.
Commissioner of Police (2013) All FWLR (Pt. 660)
1247.    The Honourable Justice Joseph Tine
Tur, JCA preserved a glimpse of his erudition and
inspiration in the following books: Sharia and the
Constitution (2002), When the Holy Spirit Hovers
(2007), I will build my Church (2008), Law and
Principles of Tithes & Offerings (2010) and the Reign
of the Martyrs (2012). He was a man of integrity and generous;
he lived the Christian Faith!

It is pertinent to note that the Honourable Justice
Joseph Tine Tur, JCA was married to Mrs. Esther Nguumbur
Tine Tur and the union is blessed with good nurtured children two
of whom are members of the Nigerian Bar Association – Raymond
Vershima Tine Tur Esq. and Nguavese Tine Tur Esq.

Most unfortunately, my Lords, the precarious security situation
we find ourselves in this country makes it impossible for us to
submit with certainty that the  Honourable Justice
Joseph Tine Tur, JCA is survived by the love of his life –
Mrs. Esther Nguumbur Tine Tur. Our trepidation is informed by the
fact that the beloved
       Mrs. Esther Nguumbur Tine
Tur was abducted by unknown gunmen at the Katsina Ala – Zaki Biam
Road, Benue State on the 10^th day of June 2018. My Lords
Your Excellencies, Over 15 months thereafter, the whereabouts of
Mrs. Esther Nguumbur Tine Tur is yet to be ascertained.

Just last week, specifically on Tuesday 22^nd October
2019, a judge of the Federal High Court serving at Akure Judicial
Division, the Hon. Justice Abdu Dogo was abducted with his driver
at a border town between Edo and Ondo States. The abductors are
reported to have demanded a Fifty Million Naira ransom! Though
Justice Abdu Dogo was released in the early hours of Saturday
26^th October 2019, it is yet to be ascertained if the
demanded ransom was actually paid. No news of the arrest of the
perpetrators of the heinous crime either. Expectedly, the President
of the Nigerian Bar Association Paul Usoro SAN condemned in the
harshest terms the ugly development. See the Press Release of the
Nigerian Bar Association dated 24^th October 2019 where
the President stated inter allia:

The more depressing aspect of this incident is that the NBA
has established that Honourable Justice Abdu Dogo’s kidnap is not
an isolated incident of security breach against our judges. Some
weeks ago, the residence of the head of one of our Federal Courts
was invaded and vandalized by burglars who made away with
valuables.  We also understand that some of our judges –
including Court of Appeal Justices do not even have police
orderlies!  That is how low and bad the security architecture
around our judicial officers is and yet, we claim to prize justice
and to be a country that places premium on the Rule of Law. In
other climes where justice and the Rule of Law are prized, criminal
attacks against Judges are considered taboo even by criminals and
where they occur, the long arm of the law is deployed to speedily
bring the criminals to book.  We betray our vaunted esteem for
justice and its administration and the Rule of Law when we cannot
even protect and secure the men and women who dispense justice in
our country.

As throwing caution to the wind, just about Forty – Eight hours
ago, on the Wednesday 30^th October 2019, Hon. Justice
Nwosu Iheme JCA of the Benin Division of the Court of Appeal was
kidnapped by unidentified gun men killing her orderly on the
spot.

My Lords, your Excellencies, rising from her monthly General
Meeting held on Thursday the 31^st day of October 2019 at
the Royal Choice Inn Makurdi, the Nigerian Bar Association Makurdi
Branch resolved to call on Government at all levels to rise up to
her primary duty of protection of lives and properties. We seize
this opportunity to make this clarion call!

Beginning from our Jerusalem, the Makurdi Branch hereby demands
the immediate restoration of Police Orderlies and Police Court Duty
Officers to all Judicial Officers and Courts within her
jurisdiction. The Makurdi Bar has observed with dismay that some
Judges are unduly exposed to the avoidable risk of
sitting/presiding/living without orderlies and no security
personnel attached to these courts to evoke the faintest atmosphere
of Government in session.

NBA Makurdi Branch calls on the relevant authorities to remedy
this anomaly before the 3^rd day of November 2019. We
shall in due obeisance to our bounden duty vindicate our existence
as the exigencies of the situation may direct. We adopt as our
reasoning and position the submissions of the NBA President Paul
Usoro SAN stated in the NBA Press Release dated 24^th
October 2019:

… It truly makes no sense in the Nigeria of 2019 that a
judicial officer of any court is not assigned a security detail as
of right and without any delay. There is indeed no reason why the
homes of our judges should not be well secured and protected with
adequate security cordon.

My Lords your Excellencies, we regrettably concede that the
Exhibit relied upon by the Leader of the Benue Bar – The Honourable
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Michael Gusa Esq. is
incontrovertible. As officers of this Honourable Court, we are
constrained to support the application as prayed. We take solace in
the fact that as opined by William Shakespeare: “Death makes no
conquest of this conqueror; for now he lives in fame, though not in
life.” the Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur,
JCA, lives on!

4.0     Conclusion:

Relying on the authorities of this Honourable Court established
in Re Hon. Justice J. M. Adesuyin (Deceased), Re Hon. Justice N. C.
O. Anuga (Deceased),
            Re
Hon. Justice I. C. Anoliefo (Deceased), Re Hon. Justice A. J.
Ikongbeh (Deceased), Re Hon. Justice D. T. Ahura (Deceased), Re
Hon. Justice S. J. Ogwuiji (Deceased), Re Hon. Justice A. I.
Katsina Alu CJN (Deceased) and Re Hon. Justice M. O. Gbim – Gbande
(Deceased), We soberly submit that the application is meritorious.
We join to pray my Lords for an Order for the removal of the body
of the Learned Honourable Justice Joseph Tine Tur,
JCA to its resting place at Tse Aminde, Tombo Mbalagh,
Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State while his learned Soul
finds rest in the bosom of our Lord Almighty. May it please my
Lords.

He informed that ‘’the  National Gender
Policy in Agriculture  is hinged on the National Gender
Policy (2006) and its Strategic Implementation Framework (2008) as
developed by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social
Development’’.

Dr M.B Umar pointed out that ‘’ as a Ministry, we are
committed to the socio-economic empowerment of women and men in the
sector. We therefore, acknowledge, acting in line with the
Sustainable Development Goals declaration, that gender equality is
a prerequisite for eradicating poverty and promoting sustainable
human development’’.