Reps move to reduce presidential powers on sack of Judges

The House of Representatives has set in motion, a bill to reduce the power of the President in the sack of judges.

Currently, the National Judicial Council, NJC, can only recommend an erring judge to the President.

If passed, the NJC will be fully involved in the procedure for the removal of the senior judicial officers.

The move came as the Department of State Services, DSS, freezed accounts of the judges under investigation.

The Bill entitled “An act to pursuant to Section 9(1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to alter Section 292 (1) (A) and (i) (ii) to include the National Judicial Council in the procedure for the removal of heads of courts established by the Constitution under Section 6 (5),” is being promoted by Garba Datti Muhammad, APC, Kaduna.

Leading the debate on the Bill, which passed second reading on the floor of the House yesterday, Datti said the principal purpose of the proposed amendment “is to ensure that judicial officers serving as heads of courts are not victimised through removal by executive fiat, acting in concert with the legislature without any established or verifiable evidence”

He pointed out that the objective of the Bill was to “subject judicial personnel serving as heads of courts established under Section 6 (5) of the Constitution can be removed only upon the advice of National Judicial Council.”