President Muhammadu Buhari (MBuhari) is yet to act on the elevation of four Appeal Court Justices to the Supreme Court, four months after Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Ibrahim Muhammad recommended their appointment to fill vacuum at the court.
Ibrahim Muhammad recommended their appointment to fill vacuum at the court. The number of Justices at the apex court has now dropped to 13 – its lowest in recent times – contrary to the 21 prescribed by the 1999 Constitution.On January 14, this year, the Supreme Court adjourned its scheduled hearing in the appeal over the Benue State governorship election dispute and other similar cases to a later date, on account of the court’s heavy workload.
“That ceremony painfully occasioned the depleting of our ranks at the Supreme Court. In a similar fashion, this session, too, is billed to further drastically reduce the number of Supreme Court justices to as low as 13. The Senate will, in turn, write to the President on its position, following which the President will then convey his approval of NJC recommended appointments to it for the final inauguration.revealed that President Buhari, about four months after receiving the NJC’s recommendation, has failed to send the names of the nominees to the Senate as required.
According to Justice Muhammad, those campaigning for the appointment of judges to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court from the Bar were not considering the drawbacks inherent in such move. “But, may be it is because I am biased; because I am a son of the Court of Appeal, and I know the number of years that I spent in the Court of Appeal. And I know the experiences I gathered in the Court of Appeal. I know the number of Justices that I met and made friends with in the Court of Appeal, and we still telephone each other till today,” Mohammad said.
“We are not denigrating the practising lawyers. That is why I said let’s call a spade a spade. A practising lawyer may have a lot of openings. Tell me: what are your openings? What is the way forward for you? Please, let’s put our heads together. Don’t entertain that kind of thing. But a leader of BOSAN, Thompson Okpoko , recently countered the CJN and presented an opposing argument.
“The question of appointment of senior lawyers to the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal has been on the drawing board for long. I met it when I became Bar President in 1998 and I pressed it until I completed my tenure.
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