Fresh allegations of corruption have emerged over the ongoing process of appointing judges of the Federal High Court, with some applicants accusing judicial authorities of manipulating results and shortlisting candidates who allegedly failed the qualifying examination.
Reports said the controversy followed a computer-based test (CBT) conducted in September for prospective Federal High Court judges.
Some applicants are quoted to have claimed that, although candidates were invited to take the examination and were able to view their individual scores immediately after the test, the Federal High Court failed to publish the full results, raising concerns about transparency and fairness in the selection process.
“Just as you know that there is serious corruption in Nigerian judiciary; this time around, the corruption has reared its ugly head again in judicial appointment in Federal High Court,” one of the candidates reportedly said.
The applicants argued that the refusal to publish the CBT results has made it impossible to independently verify whether those announced as successful candidates actually met the required benchmarks.
“After the text was taken, the Federal High Court refused to make the results public although upon the conclusion of the text, the candidates saw their individual results right away but for transparency sake, it ought to be published so that those whose names were published as successful candidates will be seen as successful candidates indeed based on their results from the computer-based test,” a source said.
They further alleged that several candidates whose names appeared on the final list did not perform well in the examination.
“The truth is that many of the persons whose names were published as successful candidates were actually not successful in the exams as they scored below 30 percent and below 25 percent,” one of the applicants said.
According to the candidates, connections within the judiciary, rather than merit, influenced the outcome of the selection exercise.
“Their only qualification is that they are connected to the ‘who is who’ in the judiciary,” the source added.
The candidates specifically pointed to alleged irregularities in the lists released for Abia and Nasarawa states.
Raising the alarm over what they described as an imminent injustice, the applicants warned that the National Judicial Council (NJC) is set to formally approve and inaugurate candidates they believe were wrongly shortlisted.
“We really need the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and the Federal Judicial Service Commission to publish the results of the computer-based test,” one of the applicants said.
“The NJC is about to inaugurate these wrong candidates whose names have been punished as successful candidates.”
- Media Report