Port Harcourt agog as judiciary prepares for Chief Justice competition

Over 1,500 judiciary staff and judges from across the country are expected in Port Harcourt next week for this year’s Chief Justice of Nigeria Sports Competition featuring 13 events. The competition is scheduled to hold from September 17 to 27.

According to the organisers, five states, including Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto have joined the fray to give the competition a national outlook. 

They revealed that 28 judiciary bodies and federal and states’ courts have indicated interest in participating in the annual competition, which is the 24th in the series, which the National Industrial Court (NIC) is the defending champion in the football event.

Apart from winning the football trophy last year, the NIC also dominated most of the events, and would be the team to beat in the competition.

According to the president of the National Sports Association for Judiciary (NASAJ), Emeka Ndili, the competition formerly featured judicial bodies from the South South, South East, South West and the Middle Belt states. “But now, we have Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto states.

“From the records, we have well over 1,500 athletes in the selected 13 events for this year’s competition in the Garden City of Port Harcourt,” Emeka Ndili said yesterday.

The 13 events are football for men only, male and female table tennis, athletics, badminton, handball and chess.

Other events are draught, volleyball ayoo, scrabble and swimming.

Ndili also revealed that Judges and Chief Registrars would feature in a special 100 metres in athletics, adding, “It is pertinent for us to stress that this games is only meant for bona fide and pensionable staff of the judiciary. The use of non-judicial staff, commonly called mercenaries will not be tolerated.

“Any affiliate that makes use of mercenaries will be suspended and the mercenary handed over to law enforcement agencies for possible prosecution.”