By Gbenga Ojo and Vivian Michael
More reasons have emerged, with regards to the resignation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, on Tuesday night.
It was learnt that Tanko Muhammad resigned on grounds of ill-health.
Arrangements are on to swear in the next most senior justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, as the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Reports also indicate that a formal announcement will be made shortly.
Until his resignation, reports had it that Justice Tanko Muhammed was seriously ill.
14 Supreme Court Justices in a recent letter to the CJN, which leaked to the public, had accused the CJN of neglecting their welfare in addition to his refusal to carry them along in the management of the court.
The justices also complained of the state of the litigations department and the general dilapidated condition of services in the Court.
In the leaked letter titled “The State of Affairs in the Supreme Court of Nigeria by Justices of the Court”, the justices asked the CJN to act before it’s too late on their challenges of justices’ accommodation, vehicles, electricity tariff, supply of diesel, internet services to our residences and chambers, and epileptic electricity supply to the court.
“Your Lordship with all due respect, this is the peak of the degeneration of the court; it is the height of decadence, and clear evidence of the absence of probity and moral rectitude,” they wrote. The 14 aggrieved justices further said CJN’s inactions portend imminent danger to the survival of the apex court and the judiciary as an institution.
The justices in their leaked letter also complained that the CJN refused to formally introduce the six new justices of the court appointed on November 6, 2020 as required by convention until he was pressured into holding the meeting in March, this year. The CJN is also accused of getting involved in procurement functions, which is the schedule of the chief registrar.
This reportedly prompted many of the justices to complain to their senior retired colleagues, including a serving emir in one of the North Central states whose consequent visit to the court, they said failed to resolve the rift.
Meanwhile, the CJN was physically absent at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), this morning, where he was scheduled to declare a workshop open.
He was represented at the event by a brother Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Suleiman Galadima.