Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola has reacted to controversies trailing judgments of various courts handling election disputes, stating that public sentiments, and emotions cannot replace the law.
“The law remains the law, no matter whose interest is involved. In all we do, as interpreters of the law, we should endeavour to sever the strings of emotion from logic and assumption from fact,” he charged judges.
The presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party and civil society organisations, however, flayed the CJN for his comments, saying Nigerians were losing confidence in the judiciary, considering the activities of judges in recent election matters in Kano, Zamfara and Nasarawa states.
But the CJN called for total emancipation of the judiciary from external influences, saying to guarantee the integrity of the judiciary, it must be “truly and genuinely independent in all ramifications.”
He bemoaned the fact that the judiciary had over the years struggled for fiscal autonomy, which he said would “ultimately embolden us to act without fear of intimidation or harassment from other arms of government.”
Justice Ariwoola, who lamented that rule of law in Nigeria had been questionable since 1999, however, scored the third arm of government highly in 2023.
The CJN spoke at a special session the Supreme Court held to mark the commencement of its 2023/2024 Legal Year and swearing-in of 58 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs.
On the sidelines of the event, the Chief Justice of Nigeria also called on the National Assembly to amend laws and allow termination of most appeals at intermediary courts, to reduce burden on the Supreme Court.
According to the CJN, from September last year to July this year, the Supreme Court received 1,271 cases, consisting of motions and appeals. Out of these, he said: “We heard 388 political appeals, 215 criminal appeals, and 464 civil appeals.”
Ariwoola said during the period under review, the Supreme Court delivered 251 judgments. Out of these, 125 were political appeals, 81 were civil appeals, and 45 were criminal appeals.
