PEOPLES GAZETTE
Chief Justice of Nigeria Olukayode Ariwoola is scheming to install his daughter as a judge on the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, the country’s seat of power, Peoples Gazette learnt through documents and judiciary sources familiar with the process.
Oluwakemi Victoria Ariwoola is the latest beneficiary of an active determination of the nation’s most-senior jurist to enroot the court system with family members and loyalists before his mandatory retirement in August 2024. Mr Ariwoola already successfully elevated his son Kayode Ariwoola Jnr as a federal judgeand younger brother Adebayo Ariwoola as the auditor of the National Judicial Council.
His nephew Lateef Ganiyu was recently promoted to appeals court, as well as other relatives now heading diverse positions across the judiciary bureaucracy, according to a recent observation by rights expert Chidi Odinkalu, who has been tracking nepotism as a growing issue in the judiciary.
Both the chief justice and a spokesman for the Supreme Court sidestepped clarifications sought by The Gazette on the matter over the weekend. The chief justice, who assumed office in 2022, has elicited little concern about the perception of the judiciary by Nigerians and even admonished judges in October to remain indignant amid widespread agitation for the independence of the bench.
Mr Ariwoola, 69, began lobbying to seat his daughter on the bench after he was notified in a January 18, 2024, letter from Husseini Baba-Yusuf, the chief judge of the FCT High Court, that 12 new positions have opened up on the court. Mr Baba-Yusuf urged Mr Ariwoola, Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi and the Nigerian Bar Association president, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, to send candidates drawn from a dozen states…
