Don’t reduce Judges to kids, ex-NBA president warns

Daudu, who is the coordinator of a non-governmental organization (NGO), the Rule of Law Development Foundation (RLDF) made the remarks in Abuja at the weekend during the maiden quarterly press conference of the body. He said the group would resist such moves and threatened to drag the CJN to Court to ascertain her powers.
Justice Mukhtar in a bid to arrest the trend whereby Nigerian judges travel abroad indiscriminately had directed all judges to seek her approval before travelling. Daudu said that the constitution did not give the CJN the powers to interfere in the administration of any court in Nigeria apart from the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
According to him, the constitution only made the CJN the chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and that does not amount to making her the titular head of all the courts in Nigeria. He said that the CJN has no power to initiate disciplinary action without receiving a petition complaining against the conduct of a judicial officer.
Daudu said that by the principles of federalism entrenched in the constitution, it was forbidden for the CJN to wish to control the administration of federal and state courts.
He said that function is left to the Chief Judges of the judiciaries of those states and the heads of the other federal courts, such as the President of the Court of Appeal, CJ of the Federal High Court and the President of the National industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).