By Eric Ikhilae, Abuja

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit challenging the nomination by the National Judicial Council (NJC) of 21 lawyers for appointment as judges of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The 21 nominees are among the 33 recently nominated by the NJC for appointment as High Court judges, most of whom have since assumed duties.

In a judgment on Wednesday, Justice Okon Abang held, among others, that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (the legal right to approach the court) to file the suit.

Justice Abang declined jurisdiction on the grounds that the non-possession of locus standi by the plaintiff robbed the court of the requisite jurisdiction to hear the case.

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The suit, filed by a group, JRP Foundation Limited/GTE, had the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the NJC, the Judicial Service Committee (JSC) of the FCT, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the 21 nominees as defendants.

The group, comprising 15 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), had contended, among others, that the affected nominees did not meet the requirements stipulated in existing provisions in the Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the appointment of judicial officers in the country.

JRP prayed the court to, among others, set aside the recommendation of the nominees by the second defendant (NJC) to the first defendant (President Muhammadu Buhari) for appointment as judges.

It also prayed the court to declare “that in its exercise of its constitutional duties to recommend suitable persons to the second defendant as judges of High Court of FCT, Abuja, the third defendant (JSC of the FCT) must only recommend such persons as have met the criteria and satisfied the conditions set out in the extant Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the appointment of judicial officers in Nigeria made by the second defendant.