The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) having read the open letter to Mr President by Col Abubakar Umar is constrained to call on President Buhari to immediately confirm NJC nominee as the substantive President of the Court of Appeal without going through another acting term.

We are not interfering in the Judiciary, we are only calling out the President to do the right thing so as to dispel the fears that ethnic and religious factors now play roles in Judicial appointments.
In this particular instance,it would manifest that the government is out to achieve some unfortunate goal if any attempt is made to jump to the next line.

And it is for this reason that we are appealing to the Justice who is next in line to know that becoming Appeal Court President under this circumstance would be infradig as it would be seen as a reward for being on the panel that ruled in favor of President Buhari in the last election petition.
The path of honour we recommend here was toed by judges of honour in Kogi State recently when the Nos 2 and 3 refused to accept being made no 1 in controversial circumstance. The Chief Judge served out his tenure.

President Buhari should save the government the possibility of such situation by confirming the NJC recommendation immediately.

Lastly, we use this medium to reject the shameful manipulation of appointment figures by a northern Newspaper to make a feeble rebuttal of Col Abubakar Umar’s patriotic memo. It was most unhelpful to the reputation of journalism.

Yinka Odumakin (South West)
Chief Guy Ikokwu(South East)
Senator Bassey Henshaw (South South)
Dr Isuwa Dogo(Middle Belt)

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SMBLF Tells President Buhari to Immediately Confirm NJC Nominee, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem As Appeal Court President