Judicial Commission wades into Justice Salami, CJN face-off 

Posted: Sunday, February 13, 2011

The National Judicial Council (NJC) has adopted a soft landing measure to resolve the impasse between the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Katsina Ala, and the embattled President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isah Ayo Salami, by considering only three out of the four names recommended to it by the CJN.
The council stated that Justice Katsina Ala acted in accordance with the laws by recommending the names of the justices to be elevated into the Supreme Court, but it could not consider the name of Justice Ayo Salami because it is prejudice since NJC was among the respondents already dragged before the court for adjudication by Justice Salami.
The NJC also explained in a statement in Abuja that consent of the person being recommended was one of the conditions in the appointment into the apex court during its consideration of any list submitted to it by the CJN.
The CJN and the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Salami, had been at each other’s throats since the Sokoto State governorship tussle suit which the Supreme Court gave the final ruling when the Electoral Act stipulates that issues of that nature ends in the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, The Nigerian Bar Association [NBA] has outlined strategic action plans for the reformation of the judiciary system in the country. NBA President, Mr Joseph Daudu, SAN, made this known at a consultative forum with development partners in Abuja.
The strategic action plan would tackle justice reforms, the development of the Institute of Continued Legal Education, the rule of law and access to justice.
Others are electoral reforms, human rights, economic development, gender issues, justice sector reforms aimed at strengthening and restructuring the justice system, and advocacy for the implementation for the presidential commission on reforms of the administration of justice.
NBA also said that it would take measures to ensure that those who caused the mayhem in Jos, Plateau State, were brought to book.
The strategic action is to be executed within two years.