Nigeria’s National Judicial Council (NJC) has suspended three judicial officers for one year without pay for alleged misconduct, abuse of judicial powers and disregard for due process.
The statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by Mr. Kemi Babalola-Ogedengbe, Deputy Director (Information) of the NJC said that the council also issued warning letters to three judicial officers and cautioned eight others.
According to the statement, the council considered nine investigation reports concerning petitions against some judicial officers over their handling of some cases and imposed additional restrictions on the elevation of two of those suspended.
The Council stated that the suspended officers included Justices Hannatu Kabir of Nasarawa State High Court, Grand Kadi Mohammed Salihu of Jigawa Sharia Court of Appeal and Sobere Biambo of Rivers High Court.
The Council, which has the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun as chairman, said that Kabir was suspended for one year without pay and barred from nomination for elevation for three years over the unlawful detention of a litigant for 58 days without proper contempt proceedings.
The Investigation Committee, it added, found that she ordered the litigant’s arrest and detention for alleged disobedience of court orders without the issuance and service of the mandatory Forms 48 and 49 or the institution of proper contempt proceedings.
It held that the alleged contempt occurred outside the court’s presence and could not lawfully be summarily tried and punished.
It also found that the action violated the litigant’s right to fair hearing.
The NJC said that Salihu was suspended for one year without pay over his involvement in reopening a judgment delivered by the FCT Upper Area Court.
The committee found that the Grand Kadi exceeded his authority by constituting a committee to review the judgment and subsequently assigning the matter to a Higher Sharia Court Judge, who received fresh evidence and delivered another judgment.
It held that the process amounted to an appeal against a valid judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, which was subsequently set aside by the Jigawa State High Court.
It also found the act to constitute a violation of Rule 3.3.1 of the Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers, 2016.
Justice Biambo, the NJC said, was suspended for one year without pay and a three-year restriction on elevation over the issuance of bench warrants and imposition of fines on litigants in a civil dispute without due process.
“The committee found that he ordered the arrest of the petitioners for alleged disobedience of an interim injunction and subsequently imposed fines of N300,000 on each without the institution of contempt proceedings or service of Forms 48 and 49.
”It held that the alleged contempt occurred outside the court’s presence and ought not to have been summarily tried and punished”, the NJC said.
However, Justice Kayode Agunloye of the FCT High Court was cautioned in one of the petitions over his handling of post-judgment garnishee proceedings in a suit involving First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
It held that he improperly entertained and granted a fresh ex parte application for a Garnishee Order Nisi on Oct. 22, 2025, after an earlier similar application had been withdrawn and struck out.
This, council said, was while other pending applications, including the bank’s application for stay of execution, had been adjourned to November 4, 2025.
The committee held that his action created room for justifiable suspicion.
GIK/APA