Justice Tanko Muhammad has said that President Muhammadu Buhari does not require the permission of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to appoint him as acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). He also said he was not aware CJN Walter Onnoghen was suspended before he (Tanko) was sworn in.
He stated this while responding to a query by the NJC.
The query followed a petition by a group, Centre for Justice and Peace Initiative, which asked the NJC to strip him of his role as a justice of the Supreme Court for accepting the position of acting CJN without the council’s nod.
He said: “In my respectful view, the National Judicial Council has no role to play in the appointment of an acting Chief Justice of Nigeria in the first instance, that is to say on first appointment. The council comes in where the appointment as the acting CJN is to be renewed or extended. I humbly refer to Section 231(4) of the 1999 Constitution. Read more