Why Leaked Memo To Former CJN, Embarrassed Justices Of Supreme Court – Justice Ariwoola

Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday as a substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), has disclosed that leaked internal memo writ­ten by Justices of the Supreme Court to his predecessor in office, Justice Mohammed Tanko, caused the apex Court so much em­barrassment.

This was as he declared that contrary to fears being expressed by some lawmakers, there was no crisis among Justices of the Su­preme Court whatsoever.

Justice Ariwoola, who disclosed this while responding to the observations raised by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele in which they made reference to the alleged petition written to Justice Mohammed Tanko by 15 other Justices of the Su­preme Court in June, 2022.

Ariwoola, who appeared before senators for his screening for confirmation on the floor of the Senate, said that the memo was not a petition against Justice Mohammed Tanko, but an internal cor­respondence targeted at address­ing challenges of welfare and unconducive working environ­ment faced by Justices of the Supreme Court.

He further said that the Justices of the apex Court did not write a petition to or against the former CJN, Justice Mohammed Tan­ko but, a memo where issues relating to the welfare of the Justices and unconducive working environ­ment were raised.

In the words of Justice Ariwoola; “We the Justices were em­barrassed when we read con­tent of our memo in the papers. It was never intended to be for public consumption since the motive behind the memo was not to fight or bring down anybody.

“When the hand written memo was signed by all the Jus­tices, we didn’t allow anybody to see it. Making its leakage to the media was a miracle to us.

“Most of the issues raised in the memo are still not attended to. This is due to the situation of lack of fund and poor funding of the Supreme Court in particular and the Judiciary generally,” he said.

Justice Ariwoola’s confirmation by the Senate took place almost three months after his appointment in acting capacity by President Mu­hammadu Buhari.

President Buhari later wrote the Senate on July 26, 2022 to seek for his confirmation of his appoint­ment as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria.