In June 2019, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, had called on his colleagues on the bench of the Supreme Court to nominate suitable candidates for appointment as justices of the apex court. The move was sequel to an earlier request by President Muhammadu Buhari for the appointment so as to meet up with the constitutional requirements of 21 justices on the bench of the Supreme Court.
However, their planned appointments, scheduled for October 2019 is coming at the time when the Former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar is heading to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling of the Presidential Election Tribunal which threw out his petitions against President Muhammadu Buhari.
At present, the Supreme Court has 16 Justices after the voluntary retirement of former CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen earlier in June 2019 but the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has raised an alarm that there’s a plot to elevate to the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul Aboki and Justice Garba Mohammed and a couple of others who presided at the PEPT.
Aside that, CUPP also disclosed that it has gotten wind of the plan to constitute members of the appeal panel without recourse to seniority.
“We have intercepted a secret list of a 7 man panel of the Justices of Supreme Court about to be announced by the Chief Justice of Nigeria in a manner that jettisoned the age long tradition of selecting the members of the panel on the order of seniority….the reason for the rush in screening of the proposed Justices of the Supreme Court is to use them as plan B for the Presidential Election Appeal where they fail to push through the intercepted list and also not unconnected with the plan to populate the Governorship Appeal panels with these justices who are sympathetic to the ruling party with aim of giving a favourable judgment and also nullifying election of governors of opposition states” CUPP said in a statement.
Checking the list of judges CUPP released, apart from the CJN, Justice Tanko Mohammed and Justice Rhodes Vivour, the Senior Justices of the Supreme Court planned to be sidelined from the Appeal panel are Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, Justice Mary Odili and Justice Olukayode Ariwoola who were appointed as Supreme Court Justices in 2011.
However, one will be curious to ask whether the composition of the judges in order of seniority would impact on the hope of Atiku to overturn the ruling of the PEPT. It is pertinent to ask that apart from the ‘tradition’ cited by CUPP as reason, is there any law stating that the panel must be selected based on seniority?
With no doubt, the manner of appointments of judges and magistrates as well as the absence of financial autonomy has put a question on the independence of the judiciary but judging from the recent event where the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa was asked to recuse herself from the Tribunal, the inclusion of Justice Mary Odili, who is the wife of Former Governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili would also raise a dust from the ruling APC and from President Buhari’s camp as well.
Atiku and PDP’s reasons were that Justice Bulkachuwa’s exclusion from the five-man panel was that her husband – Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa – and her son – Aliyu Haidar Abubakar -are members of the APC.
While Atiku had put together 70 points as grounds for the appeal at the Supreme Court, it is expected that irrespective of judges that made the list, Nigerians can only hope that his grounds and arguments would be heard and judgment delivered without fear or favor.
