JUDICIARY
ECOWAS Court Settles 50% Cases in a Year

Justice Dupe Atoki of the Community Court of Justice ECOWAS has said that the ECOWAS member-states implemented over 50 per cent of judgements passed within 2018/2019 judicial year.
She disclosed this in an interview with newsmen at the end of the 11th Judicial Retreat held in Goshen, Nasarawa.
She said that based on the data, there was an improvement in the implementation of judgements compared to previous years.
She noted that more advocacies would be done for 100 percent implementation.
“Not all judgements require to be executed and not all judgements are against member-states, so we must take out of the various judgments that we have delivered to identify which number of them should be implemented.
“What we’ve been doing is just to say we have delivered 200 judgments and only ten have been implemented, but we have come to a realisation that we must segment the enforceable judgments away from declaratory judgment.
“Then we will be able to situate the implementation but from what we have gathered in our data, we believe that members state have actually gone beyond 50 per cent of implementation of judgments.
” Is not the best, but we are getting to the stage where they are beginning to understand the importance and we will continue the advocacy to them in knowing that we need 100 per cent implementation of judgement.”
She, however, said that the retreat was to allow judges and senior officers deliberate on a lot of issues that would help them provide justice for the ECOWAS citizens.
Atoki said that one of the main issues for deliberation was the provision of legal aid to low income earners, who couldn’t afford lawyers.
“But, I think that one of the most important areas that we deliberated on was finding legal aid for poor applicants because we do know that violation of human rights is suffered by low income earners.
“They don’t have the necessary financial strength to support their complaints at the court and for us to ensure that justice gets to the grassroots, we deliberated at length on the possibility of finding legal aid for applicants that are not in the position to do so.”
She said that a committee had been set up to work out the modalities and see the possibility of finalising it to look at where the funding could be gotten and the criteria for accessing the funds.
Atoki said that the committee would engage lawyers who would support the process for the applicants and pay the lawyers the fees, but in form of subventions to legal fees.
JUDICIARY
CJN Swear in 23 Federal High Court Judges, Wednesday

Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Olukayode Ariwoola will swear in the newly appointed 23 Judges of the Federal High Court on Wednesday.
A statement by the Director of Press and Information of the Supreme Court, Dr. Festus Akande on Sunday said, the Judges will be sworn in at 11:00 am at the main courtroom of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The new Judges according to the statement are: Dipeolu Deinde Isaac from Ogun State; Ogundare Kehinde Olayiwola from Ekiti State; Agbaje Olufunmilola Adetutu from Lagos State; Musa Kakaki from Kaduna State; Abdullahi Muhammad Dan-Ige from Sokoto State; and Sharon Tanko Ishaya from Kebbi State.
Others are: Salim Olasupo Ibrahim from Ogun State; Yilwa Hauwa Joseph from Gombe State; Wigwe-Oreh Chituru Joy from Rivers State; Owoeye Alexander Oluseyi from Kogi State; Anyalewa Onoja-Alapa from Benue State; Amina Aliyu Mohammad from Katsina State; Abiodun Jordan Adeyemi from Kwara State; Hauwa Buhari from Federal Capital Territory; and Aishatu Auta Ibrahim from Borno State.
The rest according to the statement are Hussaini Dadan-Garba from Bauchi State; Ibrahim Ahmad Kala from Gombe State; Mashkur Salisu from Zamfara State; Onah Chigozie Sergius from Enugu State; Egbe Raphael Joshua from Bayelsa State; Ariwoola Olukayode Jnr. from Oyo State; Ekerete Udofot Akpan from Akwa Ibom State; and Ogazi Friday Nkemakonam from Ebonyi State.
Akande also said, a valedictory Court session will be held on Tuesday, 10th October, 2023, in honour of the late Justice Chima Centus Nweze at the main courtroom of the Supreme Court at 10:00 am.
As customary, he said, the Chief Justice of Nigeria will preside over the session which will, among other things, feature the presentation of tributes by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Chairman of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) and President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), in honour of the departed Jurist.
It will be recalled that Justice Nweze died on Saturday, July 29, 2023 in Abuja after a brief illness at the age of 64 years. He was sworn-in as Justice of the Supreme Court on October 29, 2014.
The late Justice of the Supreme Court was born in Obollo, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State on 25th September 1958 and attended St. John Cross Seminary, Nsukka from 1972 to 1977.
He gained admission into the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus in 1979 where he graduated with a Degree in Law in 1983. In the same year, he represented the Law Faculty and, indeed, all Nigerian Law Faculties, at the Philip Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington DC, as the Chief Oraclist.
His Lordship did his NYSC between 1984 and 1985 in Bauchi, after being called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984. He equally had his Doctorate Degree in Law from the same University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
COVER
Tribunal Sacks PDP Lawmaker In Plateau, Declares APC Candidate Winner

National and State Houses of Assembly election Tribunal has upturned the election of Timothy Dantong of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and declared Moses Dachum of All Peoples Congress(APC) winner of the March 18, Riyom state constituency of the Plateau State House of Assembly Election.
The Justice B.M Tukur-led panel held that at the time of the election, PDP had no valid structure to fill in a candidate as the party was still in disobedience to a court order of Justice S P Gang of Plateau State High Court delivered on November 26, 2020.
COVER
Tribunal Declares Kaduna Guber Polls Inconclusive

From Nicholas Dekera, Kaduna
The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Kaduna, has declared the 2023 governorship election in Kaduna state inconclusive.
The tribunal, during its resumed proceeding on Thursday, in a split decision of a ratio of 2:1, declared the election inconclusive and directed that a supplementary election be held by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) within 90 days.
The three-man panel led by Justice Victor Oviawe therefore, ordered a rerun of election in 24 polling units in seven wards of four local governments consisting of 16,300 registered voters.
The verdict was announced via Zoom after the judges shunned the physical hall.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, in the March 18 election, Isah Mohammed Ashiru had filed the petition challenging the declaration of Senator Uba Sani as Governor.
Ashiru challenged the election of Sani as the Governor of Kaduna State on the grounds of alleged irregularities and electoral fraud, saying that its Candidate (Isa Mohammed Ashiru) won the election.
In a press statement by Hon Isah Ashiru on Thursday night, titled
“Tribunal Nullifes Uba Sani’s Election” Ashiru said, the tribunal, based on the majority of 2:1 judges upheld the preliminary objection of the respondent to the effect that the application for pre-hearing was done prematurely before the service of the last set of petitioners’ reply to the 2nd respondent’s reply to the petition was served.
“However, the law enjoins the tribunal, as a trial court, to proceed to pronounce on the merit of the substantive suit so that in the event the court of appeal finds that the trial tribunal was wrong in its decision on the preliminary objection, it would have the benefit of pronouncing on the decision of the tribunal in the substantive matter.
“Accordingly, the trial tribunal finds merit in the aspect of the petitioner’s case relative to the margin of win between the two leading candidates. The tribunal by a split decision of 2:1 accordingly, nullified the election of the governor of Kaduna state, ordered that the Certificate of Return be retrieved and fresh elections be conducted in some polling units in 4 LGAs and the outcome thereof be reckoned with before the declaration of the winner of the governorship election in Kaduna state.
“I want to again thank the people of the state,”Ashiru stated while urging them all to remain law abiding while we pursue the appeal process.
“One thing I can assure the good people Kaduna state is that I will pursue this mandate you freely gave me to its logical conclusion and by the grace of God, victory on our side.”