CJN Ariwoola Nominates Daughter-in-law as FCT High Court Judge’

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, has reportedly nominated his daughter-in-law, Justice Victoria Oluwakemi Ariwoola, as a judge to the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.

VOP News gathered that the nomination of Justice Oluwakemi, the wife of Kayode Ariwoola Jr., by the CJN was revealed through an internal memo seen by Peoples Gazette.

According to the news platform, the CJN began lobbying to seat his daughter on the bench after he was notified in a January 18, 2024, letter from the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, that 12 new positions had opened up in the court.

Baba-Yusuf reportedly urged Ariwoola, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, and the President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, to send candidates drawn from a dozen states.

He added that they should forward their candidates with resumés to his chambers latest by January 19, 2024.

Baba-Yusuf listed the states due to feed candidates to the court as Bauchi, Bayelsa, Enugu, Imo, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba and Zamfara.

But The Gazette reports that checks showed that Oyo already has two judges on the FCT High Court, Mohammed Alhaji Madugu and Ajoke Adepoju from Saki and Ibadan South-West LGAs, respectively.

The court has 70 judges’ system-wide and they are selected across the 36 states and FCT. Some states have two or three judges, while some, like Ebonyi, have none.

A judiciary source told the news platform, “The CJN personally asked the FCT CJ to do this exercise to employ his daughter-in-law before his retirement in August,” adding, “When is he going to realise that the Nigerian judiciary is not his personal asset?”

Judiciary workers also took issues with Ariwoola’s nomination because she is a junior magistrate with only three years’ experience, having been appointed first in 2020. She’s currently a grade two at Wuse Zone 2.

You will recall, that in July 2023, the National Judicial Council (NJC) appointed the CJN’s son, Ariwoola Olukayode Jnr, as a judge of the Federal High Court.