Olukayode Ariwoola, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), says the
constitution should be amended to stop some cases at the court of appeal.
Appearing before the senate on Wednesday for a screening
exercise, Ariwoola told the senate that the workload on the Supreme Court is
too much when compared to the number of justices on the bench.
The number of Supreme Court justices has dropped to 13 as
against the maximum requirement of 21.
“More justices need to be appointed as out of 21 needed in
the Supreme Court, only 13 are left and for expeditious consideration of cases,
some of the cases should be allowed to stop at the court of appeal through
constitution amendment to that effect,” he said.
“The national
assembly should please help in this regard by carrying out required
constitution amendments.”
Already, some cases that do not get to the apex court
include matters from the national industrial court and court of appeal
decisions from senatorial, House of Representatives or house of assembly
election petitions.
In April 2021, a bill seeking to reduce the category of
appeals that get to the supreme court suffered a setback in the house of
representatives.
The bill, titled “Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria (Fifth Alteration) Bill, 2020”, seeks to make all appeals filed at the
supreme court go through leave, “that is, the court is to determine by way of
application whether a particular case deserves its attention”.
Leading the debate during the plenary session, Onofiok Luke,
lawmaker from Akwa Ibom and sponsor of the bill, said the supreme court is
overburdened by a large number of cases.
Luke, who is the chairman of the house committee on
judiciary, said the constitution grants unlimited jurisdiction to the supreme
court to handle all cases, adding that this gives “litigants the unfettered
right in most cases to approach the court on any issue”.
“Some litigants and lawyers have exploited this loophole and
filed all manner of undeserving and unmerited cases and interlocutory
applications before the court,” he said.
“It is in this vein
that this constitutional alteration is proposed to limit appeals to the supreme
court.”
The bill was, however, rejected by majority of the lawmakers after it was put to a voice vote by Idris Wase, deputy speaker of the house.
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