Senate to approves Judge Dongban-Mensem as Court of Appeal’s president

THE Senate has disclosed that it will approve the appointment of Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem as the substantive President of the Appeal Court.

The Senate had abridged its legislative processes and procedures to expeditiously approve her nomination.

Declaring the intension of the apex legislative Assembly to honour the request and fast track the confirmation,  Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said the decision became imperative to prevent a constitutional crisis in the judiciary.

The decision is to prevent emergence of a vacuum in the Appellate Court, as the tenure of Dongban-Mensem in acting capacity will soon expire.

Lawan said: “We are adjourning tomorrow (today) for two weeks, by the grace of God, to celebrate our one year anniversary. And there could easily be a constitutional crisis if we don’t carry out the exercise of confirmation before we leave tomorrow (today).

“This is clearly omitted in the Order Paper, and we find it necessary to consider it so that our Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters is able to do the screening today.

“Then tomorrow (today), we can receive and consider the report in order to ensure that we don’t leave anything as important as that undone.”

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday written to the Senate, requesting for the screening and confirmation of Justice Dongban-Mensem.