Emir: CJN summons Federal High Court, Kano judges over conflicting orders

Perturbed by the spate of conflicting orders trailing the ongoing tussle over the stool of the Emir of Kano, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, on Wednesday, summoned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, and the Chief Judge of Kano State High Court, Justice Dije Aboki, for an emergency meeting.

The CJN directed the two heads of courts to appear at his chambers at the Supreme Court complex, on Thursday.

According to a statement that was signed by the Director of Information at the National Judicial Council, NJC, Mr. Soji Oye, the meeting, which “is a prelude to a whole-scale investigation by the NJC,” is to enable the CJN to have a proper briefing “on this very disturbing development by the two respective Chief Judges.”

“There is strong indication that the National Judicial Council will conduct an emergency meeting next week where the subject judges are likely to be invited and subjected to serious investigations,” the statement added.

It will be recalled that the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, also described, as embarrassing to the judiciary, conflicting orders emanating from different courts with respect to the Kano emirate tussle.

The NBA, which is the umbrella body of lawyers in the country, in a statement it made available to newsmen on Wednesday, decried the conducts of counsel and the Courts in the handling of the proceedings, which culminated in the orders issued by the Federal High Court, the Kano State High Court, and again, the Federal High Court, in circus, have brought utter disgrace and shame to the legal profession.

It maintained that the contradictory court orders have exposed the entire legal profession in Nigeria to public ridicule and opprobrium.

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Consequently, the NBA demanded the immediate probe of both the judges and the lawyers involved in the cases that occasioned the conflicting court orders.

While the association implored the NJC to promptly summon the judges involved, it mandated its Ethics and Disciplinary Committee to invite the lawyers for preliminary investigations and refer any of them found to have engaged in professional misconduct to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC.