34 lawyers dropped from Federal High Court judgeship race after they failed integrity test

At least 34 lawyers nominated for appointment as Judges of the Federal High Court of Nigeria (FHC) have failed the integrity test for the appointment. The integrity test is part of the new guidelines approved by the National Judicial Council (NJC) under the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, to eliminate persons of doubtful characters from being appointed as judicial officers. The 34 legal practitioners are part of the 62 applicants nominated for the bench of the Federal high court, but got knocked off by various petitions against them during the integrity test. A source at the NJC said that only 28 nominees who received a clean bill of health during the integrity test would now face the interview panel of the Council next month. 62 applicants passed Computer-based Test (CBT) conducted by the Federal High Court consequent upon which their names were forwarded to the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC). However, in line with the laid down procedures, the FJSC was said to have applied the policy of integrity test endorsed by the current Chief Justice of Nigeria on public feedback on nominees by publishing the names of the 62 applicants.The publication of nominees names on September 17, 2025, invited members of the public to submit feedback on nominees integrity, reputation and suitability for judicial appointment. In one of the petitions from public feedback, a female nominee was accused of obtaining bribes in the discharge of her official duties and was referred to the Police Service Commission (PSC) for investigation. At the end of the investigation, the PSC found as a fact that the female nominee actually demanded and received N1m bribe in the course of a court matter that passed through her office. Armed with the established facts of the petition written by a lawyer against the female nominee and several others, the FJSC ended up upholding the nomination of only 28 names, forwarding same to the NJC and dropping the remaining 34 for failure to scale the integrity test. The 28 nominees will be presented to the NJC at its meeting scheduled for January 2026. The 28 shortlisted nominees will face NJC interview panel days before the proper meeting.The post 34 lawyers dropped from Federal High Court judgeship race after they failed integrity test appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.