President Muhammadu Buhari will swear in Justice Olukayode Ariwoola as the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) on Monday.
Buhari’s digital media aide Bashir Amhad disclosed this in a tweet.
Justice Ariwoola will replace Justice Tanko Mohammed who resigned from his position as CJN on Monday.
He was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court in 2011. He was a Justice of the Court of Appeal between 2005 and 2011 after having been elevated from the State High Court of Oyo State.
Justice Ariwoola was first appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of record in Oyo State in 1992 from private legal practice.
Before his elevation to the Supreme Court, he served as Justice of the Court of Appeal in Kaduna, Enugu, and Lagos Divisions.
Justice Tanko Mohammed earlier on Monday resigned from his position as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
Mohammed resigned in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari swore in Mohammed as the acting CJN in January 2019 following the suspension and later sack of former CJN Walter Onnoghen.
CJN’s Special Assistant on Media, Isah Ahuraka, confirmed his resignation to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Justice Olukayode Ariwoola is the next most senior judge to Justice Mohammed following Justice Mary Odili retired on May 12 after attaining the retirement age of 70.
Mohammed’s resignation comes amid the corruption allegations leveled against him by some Supreme Court judges.
Fourteen Supreme Court judges in a protest memo accused Mohammed of not giving justices their legitimate entitlements.
The justices said their annual foreign training, meant to enhance capacity building for the country’s judicial process, had been blocked by Muhammad.
