CJN Swears in 72 New SANs Wednesday

CJN Swears in 72 New SANs Wednesday

* As Supreme Court commences 2021/2022 legal year

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, will on Wednesday confer the highly coveted rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on 72 senior lawyers.

A statement by the apex court’s spokesperson, Dr. Festus Akande, noted that the swearing-in, which holds at the main courtroom of the Supreme Court, forms part of several programmes, “outlined to officially herald the 2021/2022 legal year of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”

While noting that the court had already commenced sitting in this new legal year since Monday, 13th September, 2021, Akande explained that the prevailing third wave of Covid-19 and the protracted strike embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) early in the year, which largely slowed down the work of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, informed the late conferment of the SAN rank for 2021.

“Expectedly, during the new legal year ceremony, the Chief Justice of Nigeria will deliver a state-of-the nation’s Judiciary address, which is ostensibly to highlight the performance of the Supreme Court; and by extension, the Nigerian Judiciary in the outgone 2020/2021 legal year”, he said.

The Director of Press and Information, recalled that out of the 159 legal practitioners that applied for the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in the course of this year, 72 were successful at the end of the rigorous exercise, adding that while 10 of the successful candidates were academics, the remaining 62 were advocates.

The Supreme Court commenced its annual vacation after a remarkably successful 2020/2021 legal year on Monday, 25th July, 2021. All the programmes billed to mark the commencement of the new legal year are to start at 10:00am prompt”, the statement added.

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