613 lawyers jostle for 25 vacant judges’ positions

There are 613 lawyers jostling to fill 25
vacant judges' positions on the Federal
High Court bench, The PUNCH has learnt.
The Federal High Court currently has 55
judges in about 38 divisions of the court
across the federation.
Our correspondent confirmed that
nominations for the vacant positions
opened on December 19, 2014 and closed
in the first week of February 2015.
This is contained in a letter by the Special
Assistant to the Chief Judge of the Federal
High Court, Mr. Ambrose Unaeze, in
response to a request by The PUNCH for
the details of the ongoing process of
appointing the new judges.
Unaeze however stated in the letter dated
June 29, 2015 that the Chief Judge, Justice
Ibrahim Auta, declined to supply the
names of the 613 candidates, information
which he said was exempted from being
released to the public under Section 14(1)
(b) of the Freedom of Information Act.
The PUNCH had on May 15, 2015
exclusively reported that the Federal High
Court had commenced the process of
appointing 25 judges.
Our correspondent learnt from sources
that are familiar with the appointment
process that Justice Auta is expected to
conduct an interview to shortlist and
forward 100 names among the 613
nominees to the Federal Judicial Service
Commission.
The FJSC will also conduct further
interview to prune down the number
from 100 to 50 and forward the names of
the successful applicants to the National
Judicial Council.
At the end, the NJC will put the 50
nominees through further processes and
select 25 who would be nominated to
President Muhammadu Buhari for
appointment.
The response of Justice Auta to this
newspaper's letter showed that the
nomination of the 613 lawyers jostling for
the judicial positions were received upon
request from the Attorney-General of the
Federation, President of the Nigerian Bar
Association and heads of the various
superior courts of record, to put forward
the names of lawyers considered fit for
the positions.
The courts whose heads were requested
to nominate candidates for the judicial
positions comprised the Supreme Court,
the Court of Appeal, Federal Capital
Territory High Court, the National
Industrial Court, as well as high courts,
Customary Court of Appeal and the Sharia
Court of Appeal of the 36 states of the
federation.
Attached to the response of the court
management to The PUNCH's request was
a copy of a letter dated November 24,
2014 by Justice Auta, seeking an approval
to commence the appointment process
from the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the
Chairman of the National Judicial Council,
Justice Mohammed, who was then
holding both offices in acting capacities.
The PUNCH's request for the information
made under the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act was
contained in a letter dated May 19, 2015
and addressed to the Secretary, Federal
Judicial Service Commission.
The FJSC had redirected the request to the
Chief Judge of the Federal High Court,
Justice Ibrahim Auta.
According to Auta, in his letter to the CJN
and Chairman of the NJC, the need to
appoint more judges for the Federal High
Court was informed by the provisions of
the FHC (amendment) Act 2013 which
increased the number of judges of the
court from 50 to 100.
He added that by the end of 2014 a total
of 15 judges had left the bench of the
Federal High Court through retirement,
elevation and death.
The letter added, "In this regard, there is
the compelling need to fill the existing
gap and vacancies occasioned by the
circumstances enumerated above i.e.
retirement, elevation and death."

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