Lucky man. After three years of what could be described as technical suspension from the bench of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta has now returned to his duties.
Indication of his resumption emerged on Monday as he joined the members of the Supreme Court’s bench at the special court session marking the beginning of the new 2019/2020 legal year of the apex court.
The ceremony was also scheduled to swear-in thirty-eight lawyers as Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
Ngwuta sat on the bench as the third most senior judge, behind the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, and Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour.
Next to Justice Ngwuta in terms of seniority on the bench of 14 of them is Justice Mary Peter-Odili.
Ngwuta with some judges whose houses were raided by the operatives of the Department of State Service in August 2016, was asked to step down from the bench pending the conclusion of the criminal trial against him.
The National Judicial Council had said the affected judges were not suspended as they continued to earn their pay for the period but were only barred from judicial functions.
While some of the judges had been recalled, Justice Ngwuta and some of the judges were subsequently charged with corruption.
Ngwuta was charged with money laundering before the Federal High Court in Abuja, and with assets declaration breaches before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
But both cases were dismissed in 2018 following a Court of Appeal’s verdict which prohibited the trial of a serving judge without being first disciplined by the National Judicial Council.
Ngwuta has not been part of any sitting or ceremony of the court from 2016 until Monday.