CJN defends appointment of 30 judges

Days after 30 judges took oath office, the nation’s Chief Justice, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has offered explanation why the judges’ appointment was inevitable.
Besides, he dismissed insiuations that the judges’ appointment was without merit. He said there was no under hand dealings as the judges remained the first set to undergo strict criteria under the 2014 Revised National Judicial Council Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the appointment of judicial officers of all Superior Courts of Record in Nigeria.

However, Justice Mohammed applauded the 
new judges, describing their appointments as ‘a 
response to the challenge of a death of judicial officers at the federal level.

Criticisms had trailed their appointments in some section that some of the newly appointed judges did not deserve to be on the Bench on the grounds that some of them were appointed based on ‘godfatherism’.

But in a swift reaction, the CJN said the 30 judges were the best to be appointed in recent time as they were the first set of judges to be appointed under the 2014 Revised National Judicial Council Guidelines and Procedural Rules.

He said: “This is the most rigorous selection process ever conducted by the Federal Judicial Service Commission and the National Judicial Council for appointments to this court. They are the first Judges of the Federal High Court to be appointed under the 2014 Revised National Judicial Council Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the Appointment of Judicial Officers of all Superior Courts of Record in Nigeria.