President Muhammadu Buhari will today swear in Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen as acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
It was gathered that Onnoghen would be sworn in inside the Council Chambers of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to feelers emerging from the Villa, arrangements had been concluded to conduct the swearing-in at exactly 2.00pm today.
The current CJN, Justice Mahmud Muhammed, will retire today having attained the retirement age of 70.
The National Judicial Council (NJC) had on October 5 formally received the nomination of Justice Onnoghen as the new CJN for onward recommendation to President Buhari.
Justice Onnoghen is the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court after Mohammed.
The National Judicial Council was said to have earlier forwarded the name of Justice Onnoghen along with two others for the President to pick any of the three justices as the new CJN based on the recommendations of the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
According to the law, the President is expected to forward the name of the nominee to the Senate for confirmation.
As of the time of filing this report, the President had not sent such communication to the Senate, raising fears that there would be a vacuum in the leadership of the judiciary from Thursday.
It will also be the first time in the history of Nigeria that a person will be appointed to the office of the CJN in acting capacity.
Those whose names were forwarded to the NJC were said to be Justice Onnoghen, Justice Tanko Muhammad and Justice Suleiman Galadima.
Onnoghen, who is the most favoured by the tradition of succession arrangement in the judiciary, being the next in rank to the outgoing CJN, was picked by the NJC and his name forwarded to the President.
The valedictory court session to be held in honour of Justice Mohammed is scheduled to hold at the Supreme Court complex at 10am on Thursday.
Under the Constitution, a person can only hold the office of the CJN in acting capacity for three months.
Justice Onnoghen was born in 1950 at Okurike, Biase Local Government Area of Cross Rivers State and was appointed to the Supreme Court bench in 2005.
Though section 231(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, confers on the President the power to appoint a CJN on the recommendations of the NJC, it, however, stressed that such appointment must be subject to the confirmation by the Senate.
If Buhari approves Onnoghen as the 17th CJN, he will become the first jurist from the southern part of the country to head the judiciary in about 29 years.
Onnoghen will clock 70 on December 20, 2020.
Justice Ayo Gabriel Irikefe, who retired in 1987, was the last CJN from the south of the country.
