of the Court of Appeal) and the Supreme Court had ceased
to be Judge and Chief Judge, respectively, of the Anambra
State and “therefore deprived of the jurisdiction to conclude
the hearing and ultimate determination” of the cases they
were, each, handling before their elevations.
This Court
declared each of their decisions, post-elevation, a “nullity for
having been given without jurisdiction”.
In the analogous cases: Gabriel Iyela V. C.O.P (1969) 1
NMLR
180
and
SODEINDE
v.
THE
STATE
–
FCA/1b/20/1977, it was held that a judge transferred or
deployed from one state to another, upon the creation of a
new State, who came back to the former State to conclude
and or deliver judgment lacked jurisdiction to do so and that
the judgment was a nullity. The constitutional issue in that
case is that the Judge lacked extra-territorial jurisdiction, just
15