The Chief Judge (CJ) of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Justice John Tsoho, has replaced Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Abuja division of the court, who was suspended for one year by the National Judicial Council (NJC).

Justice Ekwo’s court has been taken over by Justice M. G. Umar, who was moved from the Enugu judicial division to Abuja.

Similarly, four other judges have been redeployed from their current divisions to other divisions.

No reason was adduced for the action of the Chief Judge, made public in a statement on Sunday by the Director of Information of the Court, Dr Catherine Oby Christopher.

The statement indicated that the redeployment takes immediate effect

Those redeployed are Justices M. G. Umar from the Enugu judicial division to Abuja,
Tijjani Garba Ringim, from Gombe division to Yola division, M. T. Segun-Bello, from Abakaliki division to Enugu division, Bala Khalifa-Mohammed Usman, from Yola division to Awka division, and Amina Aliyu Mohammed, from Awka division to Gombe division.

The statement said the affected judges have been directed to deliver all pending judgments in their current stations within the shortest possible time.

Meanwhile, the judges currently resident in the Abakaliki and Katsina judicial divisions have been directed to take responsibility for all the cases already pending or newly instituted in their respective divisions until otherwise instructed.

In a related development, the general public was notified that all cases pending before Court No. 5 in the Abuja judicial division will be attended to by the judge who has been moved to Abuja for that purpose.

Consequently, the Chief Judge explained that there is no need for litigants or counsel to apply to his office for re-assignment of cases that have been pending before the Court of suspended Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo.