Number Of Supreme Court Judges Drop To 13 As Justice Aboki Retires
The number of Nigeria’s Supreme Court judges has dropped to 13, widely coming short of the court’s full complement of 21 justices as stipulated in the Constitution, by eight.
The number had spiralled down from 20 that it was in November 2020, less than two years ago, to 14 in June this year, with the sudden resignation of the immediate-past Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad.
It has now further dropped to 13, as Abdu Aboki, who joined the bench of the Supreme Court less than two years ago in November 2020, retires.
A statement by the Supreme Court’s Director of Press and Information, Festus Akande, on Sunday, said Mr Aboki clocked the mandatory retirement age of 70 on 5 August.
It also said a valedictory court session to mark Mr Aboki’s retirement from the bench, which could not immediately hold after his retirement more than a month ago, would now hold on Thursday, 15 September.
The valedictory ceremony, according to the statement, could not hold then “due to the annual vacation of the court.”
The event, now scheduled to hold at 10 a.m.on Thursday at the Supreme Court, will be presided by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola, the statement added.
It noted that Mr Aboki had “a rather short period of one year and eight months on the apex court’s bench.”
Downward trend
With Mr Aboki’s exit, the Supreme Court is back to where it was in February 2020, when the number of its justices, maintaining a streak of a downward trend, dropped to 13 with the retirement of Amir Sanusi.
The number of justices after Mr Sanusi’s exit had, in no time, dropped to its all-time low of 12 with the retirement of Paul Galumje in April 2020. This left the remaining judges on the bench groaning about the heavy workload marked by insufficient personnel to man the bench.
In November 2020, the downward trend was arrested, as eight justices elevated from the Court of Appeal bench, among whom was Mr Aboki, were sworn in, drastically jerking up the number of Supreme Court judges to an unprecedented 20.
But since then, seven justices have exited the Supreme Court bench without replacement – either through death, retirement or resignation – plunging the number back to 13 within less than two years.
This drastic drop within the relatively short period began with the death of Sylvester Ngwuta about three weeks to his retirement in March 2021.
About two weeks after Mr Ngwuta’s death, Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, who was then the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court, also retired on attaining 70 in March 2021.
In quick succession, Samuel Oseji, died in September 2021, aged 67, less than a year after his appointment to the Supreme Court’s bench.
Eight months after Mr Oseji’s demise, Mary Peter-Odili, who took over from Mr Rhodes-Vivour as the next-in-line to the CJN, also retired on attaining the statutory retirement age of 70 in May this year.
Eleven days later, Ejembi Eko, also attained the statutory retirement age of 70 and bowed out of the Supreme Court bench in May 2022.
Rather shockingly, the then CJN, Mr Muhammad, June this year, resigned on health grounds, coming 18 months ahead of his 70th birthday in December 2023 when he would be statutorily due for retirement.
Mr Aboki, whose retirement on 5 August more than a month ago, was announced on Sunday, left behind 13 justices on the Supreme Court bench.
Thwarted move to attain full complement of 21 justices
The 13 justices now occupying the Supreme Court bench fall far short of the full complement of 21 justices stipulated in the Nigerian constitution.
In June 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari wrote the then CJN doubling as the chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to “initiate in earnest the process of appointing additional five Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to make the full complement of 21 Justices”.
But Mr Buhari’s tardiness in treating issues concerning judicial appointments thwarted the goal of achieving the full complement of 21 justices of the Supreme Court.
Justice Aboki
The Supreme Court shared a brief profile of Kano State-born Mr Aboki, who retired from the Supreme Court bench in August, in its statement on Sunday.
He began his journey on the bench 37 years ago when he was appointed a High Court judge in the Kano State judiciary in 1987.
His short profile in the Supreme Court’s statement reads:
“Hon. Justice Abdu Aboki was sworn in as Justice of the Supreme Court alongside seven other distinguished jurists on the 6th day of November 2020; thus spending a rather short period of one year and eight months on the apex court’s bench.
“His Lordship was born on 5th August 1952 in the commercial city of Kano. He had his primary and secondary education in Kano State before proceeding to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he studied Law. Upon his graduation in 1976, he proceeded to the Nigerian Law School in Victoria Island, Lagos; and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1977.
“Justice Aboki was appointed a High Court Judge in Kano State Judiciary in 1987. He was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2006; from where he came to the Supreme Court in 2020. His Lordship had served in different capacities in many Committees at different levels of Courts in the course of his career. He had equally attended several conferences and workshops where he presented scholarly papers within and outside the country.”
