Judicial applicants side-lined over security reports

Several applicants applying to become judges in Nigeria have been disqualified on the basis of ‘adverse’ security reports. This was disclosed by the Federal High Court’s Chief Justice John Tsoho in an interview with the Premium Times. He noted that while the judiciary had ‘a full strength’ of 100 judges, in accordance with the Federal High Court (Amendment) Act, there are now 28 vacancies due to deaths, retirements and promotions to the Court of Appeal Bench. However, only six appointments will be made now. ‘As I speak, some security reports have come in and they have automatically disqualified some people (applicants). No matter how qualified you think you are, if your report is adverse or negative, you will be dropped,’ Tsoho said. He added that after the security vetting, the next stage of the process will be to send the names of screened applicants to the Federal Judicial Service Commission for approval.