Obtain law degree or lose your jobs, Nasarawa assembly warns area court judges

Judges of area courts in Nasarawa state without law degrees have been advised to get the required educational qualification within 10 years or risk losing their jobs.

Ibrahim Abdullahi, speaker of the state assembly, spoke on Wednesday during the consideration of a report by the committee on judiciary, ethics and privileges on a bill to amend the Nasarawa Area Courts Law 2022.

“Going by the principal law, if it is to be implemented it will lay off some staff of the judiciary, for fear of this, hence the need to amend the principal law,” he said

“The principal law provides that for one to be a judge of the upper area court one must be a legal practitioner with at least four years post-call.

“And for one to be a judge of an area court you must be a legal practitioner with at least three years post-call.

“The committee is of strong recommendation that a window period of 10 years be granted to the affected staff to enrol into a degree programme of Law in order to be called to bar for them to fit in.”

The speaker fixed May 9 for the third reading of the bill.

Tanko Tunga, majority leader of the house, moved a motion for the adoption of the report while Abel Bala, a member of the house, seconded the motion.

The house unanimously adopted the report.