Senior Lawyers Lament Depleting Number of Supreme Court Justices * Seek constitutional amendment to increase apex court’s judges to 30 Gboyega Akinsanmi in Lagos and Alex Enumah in Abuja Senior lawyers yesterda
Gboyega Akinsanmi in Lagos and Alex Enumah in Abuja
In their separate interviews with THISDAY yesterday, Chief Mike Ozekhome ; Chief Joe Gadzama ; Mr. Kunle Adegoke , and Professor Yemi Akinseye-George ; Mr. Ejembi Eko ; Mr. Dayo Akinlaja ; and Rev John Baiyeshea , among others, expressed grave concern over the shrinking number of the apex court’s justices.
On his part, Ozekhome said the shortage of justices at the apex court posed a great risk to the ability and capacity of the few remaining justices to handle the suits before them with election matters gradually coming up ahead of the 2023 polls. Ozekhome lamented that the trend “hinders the apex court justices from attending other genuine cases, particularly cases that concern business and investors’ funds. Any country that cannot quickly decide cases concerning investors will encounter disinvestment,” he added.
“There will be denial or delay in providing justice to the litigants as the current number of Justices is inadequate for the number of appeals and cases brought to the Supreme Court, how much with election petitions that would come in very soon. There would be many cases pending and due to a reduced number of Justices, timely justice would not be provided,” he explained.
But unlike Ozekhome and Gadzama, Adegoke suggested that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court ought to be streamlined to issues that matter. While disclosing that some names had been already shortlisted, Akinseye-George said time should not be wasted in completing the appointment. They should quickly pass the names to the president through the processes so that by the end of this month or November we should have the full complement of the court”, the senior lawyer added.