The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, has ordered the immediate redeployment of five judges across various judicial divisions of the court.
This was disclosed in an official statement signed by the Director of Information at the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Catherine Christopher.
According to the statement, the affected judges and their new postings are as follows: Justice M. Umar has been redeployed from the Enugu Judicial Division to Abuja; Justice Tijjani Ringim, from the Gombe Division to the Yola Division.
Also redeployed are Justice M. Segun-Bello, from the Abakaliki Division to the Enugu Division; Justice Bala Usman, from the Yola Division to the Awka Division; and Justice Amina Mohammed, from the Awka Division to the Gombe Division.
The statement noted that the redeployments are to take immediate effect. The affected judges have been directed to make their best efforts to deliver all pending judgements in their current stations within the shortest possible time.
In the meantime, judges currently resident in the Abakaliki and Katsina Judicial Divisions are to assume responsibility for all cases—both pending and newly instituted—within their respective jurisdictions until further notice.
In a related development, the statement noted that the general public has been informed that all cases previously assigned to Court No. 5 in the Abuja Judicial Division will now be handled by the judge redeployed to Abuja for that purpose.
Consequently, there is no need for litigants or legal counsel to apply to the chief judge for reassignment of such cases.
