The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola has revealed that the Supreme Court now has the lowest number of Justices in the history of Nigeria.
According to DailyPost, Justice Ariwoola made this revelation at the retirement ceremony of Justice Musa Dattijo Mohammed who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 years.
According to him, the apex court has only 10 Justices on its bench to grapple with the heavy workload of pending cases.
Ariwoola however, assured that the Supreme Court is making efforts to elevate a sizeable Justices to the bench of the Court.
He said, “With Justice Musa Dattijo leaving us today after the retirement of Hon. Justice Adamu Amina Augie a few weeks ago, we are now left with just 10 Justices on the Supreme Court Bench; being the lowest we have ever had in the contemporary history of the Court.
“However, I can confidently assure all the litigant public that efforts are in top gear to get on board a sizeable number of Justices to boost our rank and complement the tremendous effort we have been investing in the business of the Court.”
” We are here to identify with an accomplished jurisprudential iconoclast that has offered the best of his intellect to the advancement of the legal profession through his several years of unblemished and incontrovertible adjudications at different levels of courts in Nigeria.
“His Lordship has, by all standards, made an incisive inroad into the revered history books of the Nigerian judiciary as that gallant and eminent Justice at the Supreme Court bench who inviolably held sway in the discharge of his judicial functions.
“As second-in-command in the hierarchy of the Supreme Court, my Lord, Justice Dattijo, skillfully aided and supported me virtually in every sphere of administration. He is a specimen of hard work, industry, discipline and high moral rectitude.”
