BY Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA—Sequel to the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, NJC, President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, approved the appointment of 12 new judges for the Federal High Court.

Deputy Director of Information at NJC, Mr. Soji Oye, who made the list of the new judges available to Vanguard, yesterday, disclosed that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, had already concluded plans to swear them in Monday.

He gave their names as Mr. Suleiman Aliyu, Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice, Kebbi State; Mrs Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, private legal practitioner, Lagos; Mrs Ayua Msuean, Secretary, National Judicial Institute, Abuja; Nganjiwa Ajiya, private legal practitioner, Lagos State; Musa Kurya, Deputy Chief Registrar, High Court of Justice, Gombe State; Mohammed Abubakar, Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Sokoto State.

Others are: Ms Uche Agomoh, private legal practitioner, Abuja; Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel, Chief Registrar, Federal High Court, Lagos; Mrs Evelyn Anyadike, Deputy Chief Registrar, High Court of Justice, Imo State; Mrs Fatun Riman, private legal practitioner, Calabar, Cross River State; Mrs Chinda Adele, Chief Magistrate, Rivers State Judiciary; and Mrs Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo, Deputy Chief Registrar, Federal High Court, Abuja.

Meantime, in his bid to curtail increasing discrepancies in the verdict of judges on cases bothering on the same primary facts, the CJN, yesterday, said he has invited the Chief Judge of the United Kingdom, Lord Philips, to come and enlighten Nigerian judges on the importance of “judicial precedents.”

Addressing journalists in Abuja, yesterday, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr. Sunday Olorundahunsi, said the judges would be lectured on “Judicial Precedent; Taming the Common Law.”

He further disclosed that a Justice of the Supreme Court of the UK, Lord Robert Carnwarth, would be a guest speaker at the event, which is co-organised by the publishers of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports, NMLR.

Mr. Mobolaji Kuti, Managing Editor of NMLR, said: “The topic is indeed very timely at this point in time when there are so many controversies regarding the certainty of our laws.”