Reps Stops FCT High Court Judges’ Recruitment

House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution compelling the Nigerian judiciary to pause its ongoing replacement of 12 judges on the FCT High Court, moving quickly to rectify the nepotism and constitutional breach first exposed in a pair of stories by Peoples Gazette over the past week.

The parliament’s motion Tuesday afternoon targeted Chief Judge Baba-Yusuf’s recent scheme to seat his daughter Maryam, as well as the daughter of Chief Justice Kayode Ariwoola Victoria Oluwakemi, as the newest judges in the nation’s capital.

recruiting the children of judiciary leaders also necessarily involved stunting the career progression of other magistrates from everyday households in at least four states. It was unclear why Messrs Ariwoola and Baba-Yusuf prioritised their daughters as judges from Oyo and Kogi, which, respectively, already had two judges on the FCT High Court, when Abia, Imo, Bayelsa and Ebonyi each has no single judge on the court and the Nigerian federal character policy codified in Chapter Two of the Constitution required staffing the 70-person bench equitably among citizens from the 36 states and the capital Abuja.

Mr Baba-Yusuf has also accepted Munira Ibrahim Tanko, a junior magistrate and daughter of erstwhile Chief Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, as a candidate from Bauchi, a state that already has Babangida Hasan on the court.

The motion was overwhelmingly adopted in a voice vote by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, who subsequently referred it to the House Committee on FCT Judiciary.

The Supreme Court and Mr Baba-Yusuf’s office both declined comments about how they would treat the House’s resolution.