Date Published: 02/21/11

Chief Justice Katsina-Alu to retire in August...Controversy trails real birth date...May or August

The Supreme Court Monday put paid to raging controversy over the retirement date of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Kastina-Alu It said Justice Kastina-Alu who was born on August 28th, 1941, is due to retire on August 28, 2011, when he would clock the mandatory retirement age of 70 years.

There has been controversy in recent times as to the actual retirement date of the CJN as Justice Kastina-Alu was said to be due for retirement on May 28 ,2011 based on the apex court's staff nominal roll

However, in a statement issued in Abuja by an Assistant Director at the Supreme Court, Mr. Akande Festus, the apex court said there had never been any controversy over the date the CJN was born.The statement reads, "For the purpose of keeping the record straight, we wish to state that Hon. Justice A.I. Kastina-Alu was born on 28 August 1941 and he is due for retirement on 28 August 2011 when he would have clocked 70 years; and there has never been any controversy over this as all his records from the date of birth through all the institutions he attended vis-a-vis the various organizations he has worked before being elevated to the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria have never been different from what they have always been."

The court however did not say anything about a Supreme Court Staff Nominal Roll which put the CJN's birthday at 28th May, 1941.

According to the Supreme Court of Nigeria Nominal Roll, the CJN ought to retire on May 28th, 2011 when he would reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 years for Supreme Court's justices.

Some lawyers who spoke on condition of anonymity with our correspondent said the apex court should have done more to convince the public.

"I expected the court to exhibit the CJN's birth certificate or any other evidence that will prove beyond doubt that he was born on August 28th, 1941 and not May of the same year," a senior lawyer said.

A female lawyer, after reading the statement, said that it did not amount to a denial. She noted that the apex court did not attack the Supreme Court Staff Nominal Roll where the CJN was said to have been born on May 28 and that neither did the court deem it fit to exhibit another Staff Nominal Roll to support the position that he was born on August 28. Under the country's constitution, all Supreme Court Justices must retire at the mandatory age of seventy years.

Although a copy of the Supreme Court of Nigeria's Staff Nominal Roll put Kastina-Alu's date of birth at May 28th, 1941, the Current List of members of the National Judicial Council obtained by our correspondent clearly shows that Katsina-Alu has been slated to remain as CJN three months after he hits the mandatory 70 years retirement age for a justice of the apex court.

Whereas the Supreme Court of Nigeria's Staff Nominal Roll indicates that Katsina-Alu was born on May 28, 1941, the Current List of Council Members and their Expiration Date shifts his retirement age to 28 August, 2011 in clear breach of the statute book and the country's 1999 constitution

ThisdayOnline