- New CJN to set up election panels on Saturday (tomorrow)
President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen ad immediately announced the appointment of Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed as his replacement
Tanko Muhammed, who is from Bauchi State, was immediately inaugurated as the new CJN. The development is playing into the conspiracy theory which has long alleged that President Muhammed Buhari was desparate to remove Onnoghen to enable the emaergency of Muhammed who would go ahead to set up election panels that would favourable to the President. The theory is that it is part of ruling All Progressives Congress to rig the 2019 elections and wait for the opposition parties at the courts.
In the line of seniority, Mohammed is next to Onnoghen and had been long touted to take over from him amid the raging asset declaration trial controversy.
According to Buhari he only carried out the suspension on the orders of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, which was given on January 23.
The new CJN had prior to the ceremonies, arrived at the Forecourt of the Presidential Villa about 4.28pm.
The President had announced Onnoghen suspension and the inauguration of Mohammed shortly after signing law, a new Executive Order 007 that allows private firms to fund roads projects.
They are to be reimbursed through a tax credit.
According to a report in The PUNCH, the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, will on Saturday (tomorrow), swear in members of the National Assembly, governorship and state assembly election petition tribunals.
The election petition tribunals will be expected to handle disagreements that may arise from the conduct of the elections which begin in three weeks.
- Justice Muhammed was born on 31 December, 1953 at Doguwa – Giade, a local government area in Bauchi State.
- He is a Nigerian jurist and Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
- He was formerly a Justice of the Nigerian courts of appeal.
- He attended Government Secondary School, Azare, where he obtained the West Africa School Certificate in 1973 before he later proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University where he received a bachelor’s degree in Law in 1980.
- He later obtained a Master and Doctorate (PhD) degrees from the same university in 1984 and 1998 respectively.
- Tanko began his career in 1982, after his Call to Bar in 1981, the same year he graduated from the Nigerian Law School.
- In 1989, he was appointed as Chief Magistrate of the High Court of Federal Capital Territory, a position he held till 1991 when he became a Judge at the Bauchi State Sharia Court of Appeal.
- He served in that capacity for two years before he was appointed to the Bench of the Nigerian courts of appeal as Justice in 1993.
- He held this position for 13 years before he was appointed to the Bench of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2006 but was sworn in on January 7, 2007.
