Legal luminary Aare Afe Babalola
has advocated an overhaul of the judiciary, suggested that retired judges and respectable SANs should constitute tribunal judges.
Aare Afe Babalola made the call
at an event in Ado-Ekiti to mark his 60th anniversary at the Bar. He said sitting judges should not preside over election petitions tribunals to avoid halt of cases unrelated to elections
According to Afe “Our judiciary today needs a total overhaul and you cannot do it without a new constitution,” he said. “I have about three cases myself in respect of matters arising from the university.”
For the past four years, these cases have been on. We have some judges here, the headquarters won’t be able to sit for many months because they are handling what they call election petitions.
“Election petitions should not be handled by sitting judges, they should be decided only by the committee set up consisting of senior advocates and retired judges in that case regular courts would not close down,” Babalola stated.
Dignitaries at the occasion include former President Olusegun Obasanjo; the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah; the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi; former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Emeka Anyaoku; human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), amongst others
