NJC To Appoint Eight Supreme Court Justices As NBA Calls For Application

The National Judicial Council (NJC) has reportedly commenced the process of appointing eight new justices to fill vacant seats on the bench of the Supreme Court.

NJC is expected to fill the apex court’s bench to its full complement of 21 justices.

The number of judges at the apex court has reduced to 13 since August last year, thus overstretching the judges with an increasing workload.

According to Premium Times, Justice Ariwoola, as the Head of the NJC, has sent notices for the nominations of candidates to fill available slots on the court’s bench.

Among those to have received the CJN’s requests for nominations in the preliminary stage of the appointment process are the NBA, heads of courts, and judges of the Supreme Court.

It was gathered that the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), in an email he addressed to lawyers on Friday, urged interested and suitably qualified lawyers from the regions with openings on the Supreme Court bench to submit their expression of interest to the NBA secretariat in Abuja on or before 21 June.

Maikyau, in his email, urged interested and suitably qualified lawyers from the regions with openings on the Supreme Court bench to submit their expression of interest to the NBA secretariat in Abuja on or before 21 June.

Lawyers with at least 15 years of call to the Nigerian bar can be appointed directly from the bar to the Supreme Court bench.

The available slots on a regional basis are South-east (two); South-south (one); South-west (two); North-central (two) and North-west (one). Only the Northeast, among Nigeria’s six geo-political zones, is said not to have a vacant slot currently.

Current Supreme Court judges and the geopolitical zones they represent are CJN Ariwoola, Oyo State (South-west); Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad – Niger State (North-central); Justice Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun – Lagos State (South-west); Justice John Inyang Okoro – Akwa Ibom State (South-south); Justice Chima Centus Nweze – Enugu State (South-east); Justice Amina Adamu Augie – Kebbi (North-west); and Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji – Yobe State (North-east).

Others include Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba – Zamfara State (North-west); Justice Helen Moronkeji Ogunwumiju – Ondo State (South-west); Justice M.M. Saulawa – Katina State (North-west); Justice Adamu Jauro – Gombe State (North-east); Justice Tijjani Abubakar – Yobe State (North-east); and Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim– Cross River State (South-south).