The Senate on Thursday confirmed the appointment of the 11 new justices of the Supreme Court.
Those confirmed are Haruna Tsammani (North-east) who chaired the Presidential Election Petition Court, Moore Adumein (South-south), Jummai Sankey (North-central), Chidiebere Uwa (South-east) and Chioma Nwosu-Iheme (South-east)
Others are Obande Ogbuinya (South-east), Stephen Adah (North-central), Habeeb Abiru (South-west), JJamilu Tukur (North-west), Abubakar Umar (North-west) and Mohammed Idris (North-central).
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced their confirmation after they were cleared through a voice vote by the senators at the plenary.
With the confirmation, the Supreme Court has now reached its full complement of 21 justices as mandated by law.
Screening and report
The justices were screened by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on Wednesday. The screening exercise was referred to the committee by Mr Akpabio after reading the nomination letter from President Bola Tinubu.
Chairman of the committee, Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno), submitted the report of the screening before their confirmation was announced on Thursday (today).
Mr Monguno said it received the curriculum vitae of the nominees and invited them for the exercise.
He explained that during the screening, the justices demonstrated competence of handling the dispensation of justice.
The committee chairman noted that the nomination and appointment satisfied the constitutional provision of section 231 (3), which states that an individual needs 15 years experience on the bar to be qualified for the Supreme Court justice.
Mr Monguno said there were no petitions or criminal records against the nominees.
He said the committee members were satisfied with the nomination of justices and, therefore, recommended their confirmation.
Debate
Binos Yaroe (PDP, Adamawa South) seconded the motion that the nominees be confirmed.
The Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, commended the committee for successfully conducting the screening.
He called on the lawmakers to support the confirmation of the nominees.
Simon Lalong (APC, Plateau South) also commended the committee for conducting the screening and urged the Senate to confirm their appointments.
Ahmed Lawan, the immediate past senate president, called on the National Assembly and the Presidency to improve the funding of the judiciary.
“The time has come for both the legislature and the executive to give the Judiciary more financial attention, we should give them resources.
“I know we can do something, let us give them more resources so that we can hold them accountable when they do not perform,” Mr Lawan said .
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