Supreme court justices now 13 as Abdu Aboki retires

The number of justices of the supreme court has further plummeted following the retirement of Abdu Aboki.

Aboki clocked 70 years on August 5, 2022, being the statutory retirement age for justices of the supreme court.

However, the valedictory court session could not hold due to the annual vacation of the court.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Festus Akande, the court’s director of press and information, said the valedictory session is scheduled to hold on Thursday, September 15 at 10am.

Aboki is the third justice to retire in 2022 after the retirement of Mary Peter-Odili and Ejembi Eko.

Also, Ibrahim Mohammad, former chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), resigned under controversial circumstances in June.

With Aboki’s exit, the number of supreme court justices drops to 13 as against the maximum requirement of 21.

The former CJN had, in a letter addressed to judicial officers across the country in January 2022, called for the nomination of judges for appointment to the supreme court.

According to the statement by Akande, “Hon. Justice Abdu Aboki was sworn-in as Justice of the Supreme Court alongside seven other distinguished jurists on the 6th day of November 2020; thus spending a rather short period of one year and eight months on the apex court’s bench.

“His lordship was born on 5th August 1952 in the commercial city of Kano. He had his primary and secondary education in Kano State before proceeding to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he studied Law. Upon his graduation in 1976, he proceeded to the Nigerian Law School in Victoria Island, Lagos; and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1977.

“Justice Aboki was appointed a High Court Judge in Kano State Judiciary in 1987. He was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2006; from where he came to the supreme court in 2020. His lordship had served in different capacities in many committees at different levels of courts in the course of his career. He had equally attended several conferences and workshops where he presented scholarly papers within and outside the country.”