This leaves the court with 20 vacancies on its bench which statutorily has a full complement of 90 Justices.
The PUNCH gathered that a total of 11 Justices have left the bench of the appellate court since the last “interim posting” of Justices carried out by the President of the court, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, in July this year.
Between July and November, eight of the Justices of the court were elevated to the Supreme Court bench, while the three others either retired or died.
It was learnt that this has created some difficulties in seven of the 20 divisions of the court scattered in different states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
The seven affected divisions are Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Calabar, and Makurdi, which are now either grappling with increased pressure or unable to form a quorum because of shortage in judicial manpower.
The situation became pronounced because the eight Justices recently elevated to the apex court bench were picked from five divisions, some of which are among the busiest of the 20 divisions of the court.
The five divisions whose Justices were elevated to the Supreme Court are Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Benin, and Makurdi.
(Punch)
