Forum kicks against plan to recruit quacks as Shariah judges in Bauchi

Plans by the Bauchi state government to recruit people with certificates irrelevant to legal profession as Shariah courts judges have been uncovered. The plan was disclosed by The Young Lawyers Forum (YLF) of the Nigerian Bar Association while lamenting the alleged collection of applications for positions of Shariah Courts Judges from people ‘who have qualifications outside the legal profession’ by the Bauchi State Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The state Chairman of the forum in Bauchi, Barrister Abbas Muazu had while speaking to newsmen claimed that some applicants with certificates in Adult Education, B.SC Hausa, B.SC Arabic, etc had applied for the positions in the ongoing recruitment process. Abbas said, “For someone to occupy the office of a judge, he should have vast knowledge of Islamic law and basic general law to enable him take fair decisions on matters of life and deaths”. “Even those who hold diploma in Shariah and Civil law are not qualified to be judges because this is two years course. How much do you know of the law that you can assume the position of a judge? He queried. The forum Chairman further said, “in our candid opinion, it is not right for even people who are holders of diploma in Shariah and Civil law to apply for Shariah bench and some of them we could notice that they are holders of adult education, B.sc Hausa, B.sc Arabic. Arabic is a mere language and doesn’t necessarily mean someone who is vast in Islamic law “. Abbas who said recruiting Shariah judges is a very sensitive issue that shouldn’t be taken lightly advised that for someone to assume the position of Shariah judge, the individual should be very vast in Islamic laws. The legal practitioner pointed out that the forum had recently made a written observation to the relevant authorities including, the Judicial Service Commission, State Chief Judge and Governor Mohammed Abubakar on the need to make amends in the process of recruiting new Shariah judges. Samuel Luka, Bauchi