Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) has shortlisted 22 justices of the Court of Appeal for elevation to the Supreme Court.

The names of the nominees, who hail from various regions in the country, were revealed in an FJSC document, yesterday.
Officers on the list forwarded to the National Judicial Council (NJC) include Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the panel that affirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Six justices were nominated from the north-central region. The southwest and south-south regions got two nominees each.

While six justices were okayed from the southeast, the northeast got two nominees.
The development came barely four days after President Tinubu pleaded for qualified, experienced and diligent private legal practitioners to be appointed to both the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court bench.

Tinubu had, in an address at the opening session of the 2023 All Nigerian Judges Conference of the Superior Courts, last Monday, maintained that selecting qualified lawyers to fill the vacant seats on the bench of the two superior courts, would strengthen the nation’s judiciary.

“I seize this opportunity to make one sentence on the appointment of private legal practitioners into our appellate courts. Considering the constitutional provisions in practice in other jurisdictions, I am of the strong view that in order to further strengthen our appellate court, qualified, experienced and diligent private legal practitioners should be considered for appointment to both the Appeal and Supreme Court, as the nation will benefit from this,” Tinubu argued.

It will be recalled that a retiring justice of the apex court, Musa Dattijo Muhammad, had, in a speech he delivered at a valedictory ceremony organised in his honour on October 27, alleged that refusal to fill the vacant seats on the Supreme Court bench was deliberate, blaming it on “absolute powers vested in the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria.”

He lamented that both the north central and the southeast regions have no justice on the apex court bench.

He said: “My lord Hon. Justice Ejembi Eko JSC who also represented the zone (North- Central) retired on May 23, 2022. It has been a year and five months now. There has not been any replacement.

“With the passing of my lord, Hon. Justice Chima Centus Nweze, JSC on May 29, July 2023, the South East no longer has any presence at the Supreme Court. My lord, Hon. Justice Sylvester Nwali Ngwuta JSC died on March 7, 2021. There has not been any appointment in his stead for the South East.

“As it stands, only four geo-political regions- the South-West, South-South, North-West and North-East are represented in the Supreme Court. While the South-South and North-East have two serving justices, the North-West and South-West are fully represented with three each.”