Kehinde Fafure
During the final sitting of the 6th Assembly of the legislative council on Wednesday, 16th April, 2025, a core agendum, which was the ratification of nominees for the position of judges and chief judge of the hall's judicial council, was carried out.
The process involved the assessment of the nominated persons for the position of judges and chief judge on their understanding of the roles and duties of the judicial council as provided by the Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall constitution.
After the assessment, votes were taken. Of the seven persons nominated for the positions of judges and chief judge, five were final-year students of the Faculty of Law, and two were final-year students from the departments of Arts and Social Sciences Education and Wood and Biomaterial Engineering, respectively.
Four out of the five law students in the persons of Olorode Folafunmi, Olakojo Samuel and Joshua Onadele were elected and ratified as judges, with Tomilayo Oyedeji, who had previously served as the hall's attorney general, as the chief judge, having had only one out of six votes against him. One of the five law students, Owoeye Mosope, was not elected, as he had only one out of six votes in his favour.
Oke Oluwagbemi from the department of wood and biomaterial engineering was walked out of the house owing to the fact that he was currently serving as an honourable member of the student representative council, UI.
The 6th Assembly speaker, Rt Hon. Adetunji Samson, stated the obvious: that a member of a legislative body cannot, at the same time, be or seek to be a member of a judicial organ, hence his automatic disqualification.
However, Abdusalam Kolade from the Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education was elected and ratified as a judge in the judicial council.
The ratification process was concluded by the swearing in of Tomilayo Oyedeji as chief judge and head of the judicial council by the speaker of the 6th assembly, Rt Adetunji Samson. He stated that the swearing in of the other judges of the judicial council will be carried out by the chief judge during the first sitting of the judicial council.
