Benue-born Justice John Terhemba Tsoho sworn in as Acting Chief Judge of Fed High Court

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, today Friday swore in Justice John Tsoho as the Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.

The ceremony which took place at the Ceremonial Court of the Supreme Court in Abuja came over 24 hours after the seat of the head of the Federal High Court had been vacant.

The former Chief Judge of the FHC, Justice Adamu Kafarati, retired from the bench on attaining the mandatory retirement age of 65 midnight of Thursday.

Tsoho’s inuguration as the Acting Chief Judge was earlier suspended in the morning to await President Muhammadu Buhari’s clearance.

It was not clear if Buhari eventually nominated Tsoho to take over as the Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court on Friday.

After Tsoho took his oath today, the CJN said it was a constitutional provision that the next most senior judge of the court could be appointed as the Acting Chief Judge pending the conclusion for the process of the substantive CJ of the court.