In 2002, Mr. Uloko was one of six serving judges found ethically wanting and sent packing from the judiciary on the recommendation of a panel headed by Justice Kayode Esho. The panel, inaugurated by then President Olusegun Obasanjo, was charged with appraising the performance of Nigeria’s judicial officers. The panel recommended his sack on the grounds of gross misconduct and abuse of office.
Despite that disgrace, the Federal Government appointed Mr. Uloko the chief commissioner of the Public Complaints Commission, Abuja. Others indicted by the Esho panel were Justice Mohammed Dahiru Salleh, the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory; R.I.E. Odu and J.U. Obasse of the Cross River State judiciary, Moshood A. Olugbani of Lagos State judiciary, and M. D. Goodhead from the Rivers State judiciary.
Justice Uloko was indicted for “abuse of office,” “maladministration,” “lack of leadership by example,” and “ridiculously low work.” The Esho panel also accused him of failing to attend to judges’ problems, adding that both judges and lawyers had lost confidence in his leadership as chief judge of Plateau State.
The fate of the six indicted judges was further sealed by another panel led by Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin which reviewed their cases and upheld the recommendation for their firing. In a desperate calculated to avoid his certain humiliation, Mr. Uloko hurriedly tendered his resignation letter.
In a letter dated September 16, 2002, Mr. Uloko notified then Governor Joshua Dariye of Plateau State of his intention to ‘voluntarily retire from active service.” In a letter dated September 27, 2002, Mr. Dariye thanked the indicted judge “for all the services rendered” and wished him “a happy retirement.”
In 2010, Justice Uloko was among nominees slated to receive the national honor of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). President Goodluck Jonathan later conferred the award on the disgraced judge.
As if that anomaly was not enough, in 2012, Mr. Jonathan’s administration appointed the ex-chief judge to head the office of the Public Complaints Commission. The commission used to be under the Presidency, but is now under the National Assembly with its headquarters in the Maitama area of Abuja. Mr. Uloko was sworn in alongside 36 other commissioners on May 14, 2012, by Senate President David Mark. Both Mr. Mark and ex-Judge Uloko belong to the Idoma ethnic group in Benue State.
Several sources at the complaints commission said that Mr. Uloko had brought his notoriety for administrative incompetence to his new job. “One of the reasons the Justice Esho panel recommended this man to be sacked was his administrative lapses,” said one of our sources. “He has continued along the same path here at the commission,” he stated.
Another staffer accused Mr. Uloko of failing to reposition the Public Complaints Commission one year after becoming its head. Instead, employees of the commission’s national headquarters have reported cases of abuse of office. In one instance, Mr. Uloko usurped a Toyota Landcruiser Prado belonging to the commission. He then converted the car to his wife’s personal use.
Several sources at the commission mentioned that the car was serving as an official vehicle to an ex-national secretary of the commission before Mr. Uloko seized it. “He gave it to his wife to be using without adherence to the procurement act,” said one source. Our sources also disclosed that Mr. Uloko purchased a brand new Landcruiser Prado and a Toyota Hilux which now serve as his official vehicles. “The purchase of the vehicles flagrantly ignored due process,” a source revealed.
In another instance of abuse, Mr. Uloko awarded the contract for the construction of the commission’s office in Osun State to his wife. “This is another flagrant violation of due process and a grave case of abuse of office,” said one senior staff at the commission. He reported that Mr. Uloko’s high-handedness and corrupt dealings “have created an atmosphere of low morale, low productivity and lack of staff motivation at the national headquarters of the commission.”
One source disclosed that the ex-judge never traveled outside Nigeria once in the years after his retirement from the Plateau State judiciary in 2002. “But in a little over one year after assuming leadership of the commission, he has been to the UK not less than four times, all on the commission’s bill.”
Mr. Uloko is currently vacationing in the UK and is expected back in September.
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