No less than 15 High Court judges now have their professional fates hanging in the balance as the National Judicial Council (NJC) opens a probe into allegations of misconduct against them.
The affected judges are drawn from the Federal and State High Courts.
Disclosing this in a statement Friday, the NJC said the decision to investigate the judges was taken at its 99th Council Meeting, chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.
The statement signed by NJC’s Director of Information, Mr Soji Oye, stated that the decision for the probe was sequel to the submission of recommendations of three Preliminary Complaint Assessment Committees, which considered 66 petitions forwarded to it by the Council.
According to him, the Council was also presented with the reviewed Judicial Information Technology Policy, which established the general requirements and responsibilities for the Nigerian Judiciary systems and information.
“The policy provides guidance to Courts and Judicial Bodies in protecting Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) of judiciary function and process.
“It also stipulates guidance for acceptable use of system, services and technologies and provisions for secure storage of judicial data and recovery processes in emergencies or distress.
“Similarly, It further provides guidelines and incident management policies, including Data Centre deployment and use policies.
“It encompasses all personal or Judiciary identifiable data held in their Courts and Judicial Bodies’ systems and processes, including supporting mechanisms and technologies for managing such data at rest or in transit.
“All staff are expected to comply with the policy and associated standard protocols and procedures that have been put in place to support the document.
Meanwhile, the NJC disclosed that it dismissed petitions against 51 Judicial officers, federal and state, for either lack of merit, being sub judice, or being matters for an appeal or on the grounds of retirement of the judge complained against
