CJN Says 14 Justices Wrote Letter, Not Petition, To Predecessor
THE newly confirmed Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, has clarified that there was no petition of such nature, saying what leaked to the media was a letter of complaints by 14 Justices to his predecessor, Justice Tanko Mohammed, on issues relating to the workings of the judiciary and the welfare of judicial officers.
“The 14 of us wrote and delivered by hand to our brother, the past CJN. How it got to the newspapers, we do not know; we had no problems with our number one. There was no petition against the CJN; we were not protesting, we only put our complaints on paper to our brother,” he stated.
He stressed that the judiciary must be funded, saying Judges should not been seen as begging, adding that the major challenge of the judiciary was inadequate funding of its operations, calling on the senate to always give expeditious approval to budgets of the judiciary to enable it discharge its duties.
The Senate confirmed Ariwoola’s nomination as the substantiative CJN, following his screening on Wednesday, September 21. He was nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari in acting capacity in June, following the resignation of Muhammad, who resigned as the CJN on the grounds of ill-health.
Ariwoola disclosed his intention to introduce technology into the operations of the judicial system, noting that machinery had been put in place to amend the rules and procedures of courts to ensure improved operations of their processes.
He stressed the need to appoint more Judges to facilitate speedy dispensation of cases, advocating that final judgments on some cases should be made to end at the appeal courts, while some of the issues are constitutional matters that require amendments of the constitution and charged the National Assembly to help in amending the laws on such matters.
