Justice Olukayode Ariwoola has been confirmed as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria.

His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday.

The confirmation followed the screening of Justice Ariwoola by the Committee of the Whole inside the Senate chambers.

During the screening, Justice Ariwoola responded to questions posed to him by Senators.

Senators who asked questions included the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Philip Aduda, Senator Gabriel Suswam and Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah.

Theliberationnews reports authoritatively that at exactly 12:45 of the ongoing exercise, Senators requested that the acting CJN be asked to take a bow and go “having sufficiently responded to questions posed to him.”

In his reaction, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan, noted that if it is the will of the Senators that the acting CJN should take a bow, he would be bound by their decision even if the request is different from his personal opinion.

Senators unanimously approved that the acting CJN be allowed to take a bow and go when the request was put to voice vote by Lawan at about 12:55pm.

Thereafter the Senate reverted to plenary where the lawmakers also unanimously approved that the acting CJN’s nomination for appointment as CJN be confirmed by the Senate.

Ariwoola has been acting as the CJN following the retirement of his predecessor, Justice Tanko Muhammad.

Justice Muhammad resigned on health grounds on Monday, June 27, 2022. But that was barely two weeks after 14 justices of the apex court, in a widely circulated memo, accused him of neglecting their welfare, not carrying them along in managing the affairs of the court, the deteriorating condition of services generally, and the state of the litigation department.

Justice Muhammad, however, denied the allegations and condemned taking the issues to the public.

Speaking during the confirmation hearing, Justice Ariwoola said it was surprising that the memo was leaked to the public as he explained that no justice had a copy of it.

“How the memo was leaked to the press is still a miracle to us. In fact, no justice has a copy of the memo. We (14 justices) sat together, wrote the memo, signed it and took it in person to our brother, the Chief Justice,” he said.