A former chief registrar of the Supreme Court, Ahmed Saleh, has assumed office as the secretary of the National Judicial Council, NJC.
He replaced his predecessor, Danladi Halilu, who just retired.
A statement from the special assistant to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairperson of the NJC, Walter Onnoghen, had on June 4 disclosed the appointment of Mr. Saleh.
Another statement received on Wednesday said Mr. Saleh was taking over as NJC’s secretary from his predecessor who had reached his retirement age after years of active service in the office.
“Danladi Halilu, Esq., OON, on 1st July, 2002, took over from Hajia Bilkisu Abdulmalik Bashir, OON, Secretary, Federal Judicial Service Commission, who was then coordinating the affairs of the National Judicial Council,” the statement said.
According to the statement, Ahmed Saleh, who until his appointment was the immediate past chief registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, holds first and second degrees in Law from Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto and Bayero University, Kano, respectively.
“He worked briefly as a private legal practitioner before joining the service of Jigawa State Ministry as a Senior State Counsel in 1998, where he rose to become Director of Legal Drafting in 2002. Mr. Saleh was a onetime Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, Dutse Branch in 2008,’’ the statement added.
The new appointee was once a special assistant to former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Idris Kutigi. In 2010, he was appointed the Deputy Director Litigation before his appointment as the 16th Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The statement also attributed technological improvements in the running of affairs at the Supreme Court to Mr. Saleh’s efforts at the office.
“He introduced technologies which has enable the court rooms to connect to unified system that has a central repository for all audio/video recording of proceedings.
This includes: the transcript, audio and video recordings of any hearing, appearances and Court room proceedings.
He also installed in the court a device called the document camera with the capacity to display exhibits, which can be viewed by judges, registrars and lawyers.
This device converts a paper document or physical exhibit to an electronic image with the ability to enlarge or reduce the image,” the statement said.