By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The statutory annual vacation of the Federal High Court of Nigeria for 2021 will begin on Monday, July 26.
A circular addressed to all Federal High Court judges by the honourable Chief Judge of the Court, Justice John T. Tsoho, reads, “Pursuant to the provisions of Order 46, Rule 4 (d) of the Federal High Court (Civil procedure) Rule 2019, the Federal High Court will proceed on its annual vacation for the year 2021 from Monday, 26, July 2021, to Friday, 17, September 2021.
“The court resumes sitting on Monday, the 20th of September 2021”, the Chief Judge stated.
He said the annual vacation will enable judges of the court to enjoy a well-deserved rest and to prepare for the challenges of the new legal year.
According to the Chief Judge, only the core judicial divisions of the court will remain functional throughout the vacation, adding that litigants can approach only the Abuja, Lagos and Port-Harcourt divisions of the court during the vacation for urgent matters.
Part of the circular reads, “It is essential to stress that during the vacation, only cases of extreme urgency such as the arrest of ship(s) and fundamental rights enforcement are to be entertained.”
It listed Justices Ahmed Mohammed and O.E Egwuatu as vacation judges for the Abuja division of the Federal High Court; Justices I.N Oweibo and Tijjani Ringim for Lagos division while Justices S. D Pam and A. T Mohammed will remain as vacation Judges for the Port-Harcourt division.
Recall that due to the suspended strike of the Judiciary workers which forced all the courts nationwide to halt activities for 9 weeks, culminating in the pilling up of pending cases and filing of new cases, some lawyers had appealed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), the Chief Judge of Federal High Court and States’ Chief judges to cancel this year’s annual vacation in order to dispense cases affected by the strike.
However, their appeal seems to have no effect as the court is still proceeding on vacation.