The number of Justices of the Supreme Court drops from 14 to 13 as Justice Amiru Sanusi retires from the apex court’s bench today (Monday).

This development comes on the heels of repeated complaints by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, that he and his colleagues on the apex court’s bench are overworked.

The PUNCH reports that the constitution provides for 21 Justices as a full complement of the apex court’s bench, a status the highest court of the land has never attained.

The number of Justices of the Supreme Court reached 17 on January 18, 2019 when the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen (retd), swore in Justice Uwani Abba-Aji to the apex court’s bench.

But starting with the controversial exit of Justice Onnoghen from the bench in April 2019 and the retirement of Justices Kumai Akaahs and Sidi Bage last year, the number of the Supreme Court Justices dropped to 14.

In June 2019, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), wrote a letter requesting the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammadu, to “initiate in earnest the process of appointing additional five Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to make the full complement of 21 Justices” as provided by the Constitution.

But the President has yet to act on the list of four Justices of the Court of Appeal recommended by the National Judicial Council and sent to him for appointment to the apex court’s bench since October 2019.

A statement by the NJC’s Director, Information, Mr Soji Oye, had stated that the council, at its meeting held on October 22 and 23, 2019, recommended Justices Adamu Jauro, Emmanuel Agim, C. Oseji, and Helen Ogunwumiju.

While the President was being awaited to forward the names of the nominees to the Senate for confirmation, Justice Akaahs retired from the Supreme Court’s bench on December 12, 2019.

The Supreme Court’s Director of Information, Dr Festus Akande, in a statement on Friday, announced that Justice Amiru Sanusi, who was appointed to the apex court’s bench in May 2015, would retire on attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70 today.

With his retirement, the number of Supreme Court Justices, which is currently 14, will drop to 13, leaving a gap of eight Justices to make the full complement of 21.

When contacted, the apex court’s Director of Information, Akande, said he had no information on the delay in the appointment process of the recommended Justices for the apex court.

But reacting on behalf of the Nigerian Bar Association, the association’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kunle Edun, said the delay in the process of appointing four judges recommended by the NJC for the apex court’s bench, had “created unhealthy burden on the Supreme Court Justices who are now forced to overwork themselves.”

Edun added that it was worrying that the Supreme Court had been unable to get its full complement of 21 Justices.

He stated, “It is worrying that the Supreme Court has yet to have its full complement of Justices on the Supreme Court bench. The recent recommendation of the National Judicial Council on the elevation of some Justices of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court has yet to be acted upon by the Presidency and the Senate.

“The President is to approve the nominations and present the same to the Senate for confirmation.

“This delay has created an unhealthy burden on the Supreme Court Justices who are now forced to overwork themselves. In many cases, appeals stay in the Supreme Court for 10 years before one can get a hearing date.

“This should not be the case. When justice is delayed it could propel litigants to resort to other options to settle scores, which would not help the society.

Perhaps the judges next in line for appointment into the supreme court will not fit into his ethno-religious supremacist agenda hence the delay in the apex court having it's full complementary members.

This is the first time under a regime that:
-1).The rights of supreme court judges will be severely bastardized via gleefull brigandage by the DSS in violating their privacy, destroying their homes @ odd hours arresting & framing them on flimsy money laundering charges of which many were acquitted & discharged.

-2).A Nigerian president will openly gloat that "national security supersedes the rule of law" yet no security anywhere in Nigeria even with the fascist iron fist griphold on the Nigerian state & polarisation of the nation security architecture firmly in the hands of core northern hausa-fulani muslims.

-3).A sitting CJN will be fraudulently & illegally removed from office without following judicial & constitutional procedures thereby usurping the power of an NJC that have long became an appendage of the government of the day.

-4).A supreme court president & CJN(an islamic law graduate with abysmal academic records) will openly go secular by calling for more inclusion of Sharia provisions in the constitution of a multi secular nation like Nigeria.

-5)."We have an unprecedentedly total fascist takeover of the judiciary, the kind that compelled the Supreme Court to award nullified rigged votes to APC’s Hope Uzodinma even if by doing so the Supreme Court created an astonishing numerical incongruity where the Supreme Court’s final vote tally is now greater than the number of people INEC accredited to vote!"
https://www.farooqkperogi.com/2020/01/imo-judicial-abracadabra-and.html?m=1#.XiJ_Dz71hGU.twitter

This regime keeps scoring every negative record one can ever imagined.

This is Nigeria’s end time.The tyrannical regime of Maj.Gen.Muhammadu Buhari will give way to secession.In the absence of a unifying national interest, Nigeria has become fragmented, lawless, disorderly, dangerous, and seemingly unliveable.

DenreleDave:
I will comment later, sleep stil dey my eye


And again, shebi NBA na basketball team, wetin concern Supreme Court for basketball?

Someone shud enlighten mi

DenreleDave:
I will comment later, sleep stil dey my eye


And again, shebi NBA na basketball team, wetin concern Supreme Court for basketball?

Someone shud enlighten mi

Buuks77:
Please how did i end up becoming a Nigerian

Racoon:
5)."We have an unprecedentedly total fascist takeover of the judiciary, the kind that compelled the Supreme Court to award nullified rigged votes to APC’s Hope Uzodinma even if by doing so the Supreme Court created an astonishing numerical incongruity where the Supreme Court’s final vote tally is now greater than the number of people INEC accredited to vote!"

ProsperChild:

https://punchng.com/supreme-court-judges-drop-to-13-nba-kicks/