Pascal Arogorn Ibe
A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted permission for the commencement of a suit seeking to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint the 33 lawyers nominated by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for appointment as judges of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ex-parte ruling on Wednesday, granted leave to the applicant to file a writ of summons for an order of mandamus compelling the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to perform his constitutional duties as contained in Section 256(2) of the Constitution by appointing the 33 persons recommended to him for appointment as judges of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
The ex-parte application, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/828/2020, was filed by a lawyer, Oladimeji Felix Ekengba, Justice Ekwo noted that the leave granted the applicant is to enable him commence the process of initiating the writ of summons for an order of mandamus against the President and that it did not amount to granting the order of mandamus itself.
Although Buhari has since appointed 11 of the nominees on the NJC’s list sent to him in April this year, leaving out the 21 others, Ekengba had insisted in his ex parte application filed in July this year that the President was duty-bound to appoint all the 33 nominees by virtue of Section 256 (2) of the Constitution.
The President and the Attorney-General of the Federation are the two respondents in the applicant’s application.
It will be recalled that the judge, Justice Ekwo, had in September ruled in another suit filed by Ekengba, that the President acted in contravention of the law when he sent the names of 11 candidates recommended to him by the NJC to the Senate for screening and confirmation.
The judge agreed with the plaintiff that only the appointments of a head of court, like the Chief Judge, required Senate confirmation.
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