The National Judicial Council (NJC) has disowned a report currently circulating on social and conventional media, which alleged that 34 lawyers failed an integrity test and were consequently dropped from consideration for appointment as Judges of the Federal High Court of Nigeria.
A press statement by the Secretary of the NJC, Ahmed Gambo Saleh, stated categorically that the report is inaccurate and unauthorised, and does not reflect the true position of events as they transpired at the level of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC).
The statement said, “For the avoidance of doubt, the processes referenced in the report were conducted entirely at the FJSC level, and no decision or action has yet been taken by the National Judicial Council in respect of the candidates concerned.”
The Council further clarified that while a few candidates were indeed discontinued from the process at the FJSC level based on adverse findings arising from petitions received by the Commission, several others did not progress further simply because they failed to meet the required qualifying score to advance to the interview stage before the NJC.
The Council emphasised that, contrary to the impression conveyed by the media reports, there is no stand-alone or newly introduced “integrity test” whose failure automatically disqualified candidates en masse.