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There are 613 lawyers jostling to fill 25 vacant judges’ positions on the Federal High Court bench, The PUNCH has learnt. The Federal High Court currently has 55 judges in about 38 divisions of the court across the federation. Our correspondent confirmed that nominations for the vacant positions opened on December 19, 2014 and closed in the first week of February 2015. This is contained in a letter by the Special Assistant to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Mr. Ambrose Unaeze, in response to a request by The PUNCH for the details of the ongoing process of appointing the new judges. Unaeze however stated in the letter dated June 29, 2015 that the Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta, declined to supply the names of the 613 candidates, information which he said was exempted from being released to the public under Section 14(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act. The PUNCH had on May 15, 2015 exclusively reported that the Federal High Court had commenced th...

FRESH facts on Tuesday indicated that the national caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress scheduled for Monday was cancelled because of the suspicion within the party. The PUNCH learnt that the APC leadership called off the meeting because of reported anger of some leaders of the ruling party in the north at insinuations by Chief Bisi Akande that they were behind the crisis in the party. Akande, a former interim national chairman of the APC, had in a letter made public on Monday alleged, among other things, that, “Most Northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked (President Muhammadu) Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance, are quickly backing up the rebellion against APC with strong support.” A member of the party’s caucus from the North-East geopolitical zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said it would have been a rancorous session if the caucus meeting had hel...

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has arraigned two officials of the National Anti-corruption Volunteer Corps, Akinyemi Badejogun and Olanrewaju Bakare, for an alleged theft of N72.6m. Badejogun and Bakare are the Coordinator and the Treasurer respectively of the Lagos Chapter of the NACV. The ICPC on Tuesday charged them with 36 counts before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja. But the two officers pleaded not guilty to all the charges. However, the ICPC, in its charge before the court, alleged that Badejogun and Bakare conspired to commit felony, stole and fraudulently converted funds belonging to the NAVC to their own personal use. They were also accused of making false and misleading statements to an operative of the ICPC. The offences, the commission alleged, were committed between December 2010 and November 28, 2011. In one of the counts, Badejogun and Bakare allegedly conspired to transf...

The Rivers State House of Assembly has approved a request by the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, seeking the House’s approval for the taking of N20bn loan from Access Bank Plc. The House had acted on a letter titled, ‘Request for approval to borrow N20bn loan facility from Access Bank Plc to finance major ongoing road projects’. Wike had sent the letter to the House through the Speaker, Ikuiyi-Owaji Ibani, saying the loan facility is intended to complete some uncompleted road projects embarked upon by the previous administration and also for some new road projects to be executed by his administration. The governor had earlier sought an approval from the House for a N10bn loan, which was granted by the House.   “Pursuant to our resolve to continue viable ongoing projects, government has met with contractors handling major roads construction in the state with a view to mobilizing them back to site. “The contractors handling road projects awarded by the previous...