President
Goodluck Jonathan has accepted the recommendation of the National Judicial
Council (NJC) to appoint Justice Mahmud Mohammed as the next Chief Justice
of Nigeria (CJN).
A source at the presidency yesterday the president had communicated his acceptance of Mohammed to the NJC.
The next step is to send his lordship’s name to the senate for confirmation.
His screening at the Senate is also expected to sail through if past experience is anything to go by.
The presidential source said Jonathan handled the NJC’s recommendation with dispatch because of the high respect he had for the judiciary and the outgoing CJN, Justice Aloma Mukhtar.
NJC had last week recommended Justice Mohammed to the president for appointment as CJN.
Two weeks ago, the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC) recommended Mohammed to replace Justice Mukhtar.
Justice Mukhtar will retire on November 20 when she will have clocked the mandatory retirement age of 70 years. She was born on November 20 1944.
Justice Mohammed is the next most senior justice of the Supreme Court. Succession to the office has always been based on seniority.
Justice Mohammed hails from Jalingo in Taraba State. He was born on November 10 1946.
He studied for his Bachelor’s degree in Law (LL.B) at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, graduating in 1970; after which he attended the Nigerian Law School in Lagos and was subsequently called to bar in 1971.
He began his career in public service with the Ministries of Justice of the defunct North-eastern state, and Gongola State, and the judiciaries of the defunct Gongola State.
In 1991, he was appointed the Acting Chief judge of Taraba State, and later confirmed the substantive Chief Judge of Taraba State in the same year.
Prior to being appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court in 2005, he was Justice of the Court of Appeal, and then Presiding Justice.
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Politics