The National Judicial Council met on 3 November and suspended three judicial officers for one year without pay. Chief Justice of Nigeria Kudirat Kekere-Ekun chaired the session. The council also barred all three from promotion or elevation for three years. The decision was made public on 5 November.
The three are Justice Hannatu Mohammed Kabir of the Nasarawa State High Court, Grand Kadi Mohammed Sani Salihu of the Jigawa State Sharia Court of Appeal, and Justice Sobere Biambo of the Rivers State High Court. The council has not published the full reasoning behind each sanction.
The council’s disciplinary machinery has produced suspensions before. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia was suspended in 2016 after her arraignment on corruption charges. The Onnoghen episode in 2019 ended with a council recommendation of compulsory retirement. In each case, the question was never whether the council could act. It was why a particular case had to occur before it did.
The Kabir case is the most disturbing. The council found that she detained a litigant for 58 days without the contempt procedures the law requires. Fifty-eight days is not an administrative lapse. It is nearly two months in custody, imposed by a judge acting without the charge, hearing and opportunity to respond that contempt proceedings demand. A court that punishes without process stops being a court.
The Biambo finding follows the same logic. He ordered litigants arrested and fined them ₦300,000 each without proper proceedings. A fine imposed without a hearing is not a penalty. It is a levy collected under threat of detention.
The Salihu matter is less clear. The council sanctioned the Grand Kadi, but the account available does not state the conduct found against him. That gap matters. A disciplinary regime that announces outcomes without published findings invites the suspicion it exists to dispel.
The one-year suspension without pay carries an immediate cost. Three courts lose a judge for twelve months. Backlogs grow. Litigants who waited for a hearing wait longer. The three-year bar on elevation is the longer punishment. It removes each officer from consideration for higher office at the exact point in a career when such movement is expected.
Winners and Losers
Winners: The National Judicial Council, which has demonstrated that its disciplinary powers are operational. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, who has presided over a decision with real consequences. Litigants who were detained or fined unlawfully, who gain formal vindication.
Losers: The three judicial officers, who lose a year’s salary and three years of career mobility. The Nasarawa, Jigawa and Rivers judiciaries, which lose capacity for twelve months. The wider judiciary, whose reputation absorbs the damage of each case that reaches this stage.
Bottom Line: A suspension is a consequence. It is not a correction. The council has shown it will act. The harder question is why a litigant had to spend 58 days in custody before anyone acted at all.