Honorable Justice Emmanuel Obioma Ogwuegbu, a distinguished retired justice of the Supreme Court, has reportedly passed away.
Law & Society Magazine confirmed his death through sources close to the esteemed jurist.
Justice Ogwuegbu joined the Supreme Court in February 1992 and retired on March 16, 2003. He would have turned 92 in March 2025.
Before his appointment to the Supreme Court, His Lordship served for five years on the Court of Appeal. He also held a position in the Supreme Court of The Gambia after being appointed in December 1999.
Ogwuegbu began his career as a magistrate and advanced through the ranks to the High Court of old Imo State, the Court of Appeal, and ultimately the Supreme Court.
Regarded as humble, resilient, compassionate, and industrious by his colleagues and protégés, Justice Ogwuegbu rendered numerous significant judgments throughout his tenure on the bench.
One of his prominent rulings was his lead judgment on May 29, 1998, in a well-known criminal case involving Sunday Effiong (appellant) and the State (respondent). Effiong had been convicted on September 27, 1983, at the High Court of Borno State, sentenced to death by hanging under Section 221(b) of the Penal Code for the fatal stabbing of Police Constable Isaac Onoh on June 23, 1982, in Tandari Ward, Bama (see Onafowokan v. The State).
Another notable case involved a consensus reached by a seven-member panel on April 5, 2002, regarding a dispute between the Attorney General of the Federation and the Attorney General of Abia State, along with 35 others, concerning revenue derivation. Justice Ogwuegbu concurred with the lead judgment that the Federal Government should calculate derivation based on the low water mark. This dispute involved the Federal Government and eight littoral states: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, and Rivers.
Justice Ogwuegbu was also part of the panel that addressed the authority of the National Assembly to enact laws regulating the tenure of local councils. The Supreme Court ruled that no law passed by the National Assembly could validly increase or alter the tenure of elected officers, including chairmen and councillors of local councils in Nigeria, except for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
His Lordship attended the University of Liverpool, England, from 1957 to 1960, earning an LL.B degree in law. He then studied at Middle Temple between 1960 and 1962 and obtained an LL.M from the University of London. He was called to the English Bar and, in October 1962, became a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Ogwuegbu began his private legal practice in 1963, but prior to his studies in England, he worked as a clerk for the Okigwe Native Authority from 1953 to 1956. In 1965, he was appointed Magistrate Grade 1 and later promoted to senior magistrate in 1969. He then served as Secretary to the Law Revision, Law Reform, and Law Reporting Division of the Ministry of Justice in East-Central State of Nigeria, where he edited volumes of the Eastern Law Reports and the East Central State Law Report in 1970. He resigned in 1971 to return to private practice.
In 1976, he was appointed a judge of the High Court of Imo State, where he served as an administrative judge in the Owerri and Aba Judicial Divisions until 1987. He was then elevated to the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, and after just five years, he ascended to the Supreme Court of Nigeria in February 1992.
