Tinubu Moves to Bolster Judiciary, Proposes 200 New Appellate, High Court Judges

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has asked Senate to significantly expand the country’s appellate and trial courts, proposing 200 new judges for the Court of Appeal and Federal High Court.

The move was aimed at strengthening judicial capacity and addressing rising caseloads driven by new security and economic challenges.

The request was contained in two separate bills transmitted to the upper chamber and read at plenary yesterday by President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as lawmakers resumed sitting after the Christmas and New Year recess.

Specifically, Tinubu is seeking to amend the Court of Appeal Act, 2004, to raise the number of justices in the intermediate appellate court from the current 70 to 110.

He also forwarded a bill to amend the Federal High Court Act, 2004, proposing an increase in the number of judges from 70 to 90.

According to the president, the expansion became necessary in view of the growing workload of the courts and the emergence of specialised and complex areas of litigation, particularly terrorism-related cases, taxation, and other evolving aspects of federal jurisdiction.

In the case of the Court of Appeal, the proposed amendment went beyond increasing manpower.

The bill also sought to modernise court operations by providing for electronic and visual transmission of proceedings, while updating several operational terminologies in the existing law to align with contemporary judicial practices.

For the Federal High Court, Tinubu stated that the current number of judges was no longer sufficient to cope with the volume and complexity of cases brought before it.

The court was originally established with 50 judges, a figure that was increased to 70 in 2009.

However, the president stated that recent developments in governance, security, and economic regulation had placed additional demands on the court, making a further expansion unavoidable.

He stressed that the proposed increase to 90 judges would enhance efficiency, reduce delays in the administration of justice, and ensure that the court was better equipped with judges who possessed the requisite professional competence in emerging areas of law.

In a related development, Tinubu also forwarded the name of Oyewole Joseph to Senate for confirmation as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

The senate is expected to subject the bills and the nomination to legislative scrutiny in line with its constitutional mandate.