More facts have emerged as to why the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Mohammed Tanko hurriedly resigned as Nigeria's number one legal officer. TheNewsGuru. com, (TNG) reports the major reason why former CJN Mohammed Tanko hurriedly resigned before his due date of retirement is not really on health ground but the lethal bomb petition written by 14 Justices of the Supreme Court alleging gross misappropriation of funds despite an increase in the judiciary's budgetary allocations. TNG reliably gathered that the centre could no longer hold for the former CJN after the 14 Justices appended their signatures on a petition detailing why despite extra budgetary allocations in 2022 they still wallow in penury while he goes on annual vacation with his entire family while Justices are restricted to just one person. In the petition they complained of a lack of residential accommodation and vehicles at the court. "The justices further accused the CJN of gallivanting with his “spouse, children and personal staff,” while not allowing them to travel with an assistant on foreign trips. "The justices decried the lack of legal research assistants, despite the magnitude of cases being adjudicated. "On erratic electricity supply, the justices said they have been confined to work between the “hours of 8 a.m and 4 p.m daily, for lack of diesel,” after they were notified of the development by the Supreme Court’s Chief Registrar, Hajo Bello.R Read part of the petition below: THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA AND DEMAND BY JUSTICES OF THE COURT "My Lord The Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria, we the entire Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, carefully reviewed the state of affairs in this Court and unanimously resolved to write formally and draw the attention of Your Lordship to our demands. "As a preamble, let it be clearly understood that, the resolution to write Your Lordship was reached with all sense of responsibility. We are serving this Country diligently and to the best of our ability. We resolve disputes between the Executive and the Legislature including all manner of disagreements, between governments and individuals. "We are responsible citizens of this Country. It would be a tragedy if the Nigerian Public were to know that we are unable to resolve our own problems internally without going Public. The decision to write to you formally must be seen by Your Lordship as an effort on our part to preserve the dignity of the Judiciary and the respect accorded to us by Governments and people of Nigeria. God forbid the day that our internal issues become a matter of National discourse. It would be a catastrophe better imagined. "Your lordship must therefore act before it is too late. My lord may recall that you reluctantly called a Justice’s meeting on the 23rd day of March, 2022 when the recent Justices meeting was held. "Your Lordship may also recall that at the meeting we tabled and discussed our demands on: I. Justices accommodation, II. Our vehicles, III. Electricity tariff, IV. Supply of diesel, V. Internet services to our residences and chambers, VI. Epileptic electricity supply to the Court, "We also raised the issue of the failure of the Honourable Chief Justice to carry the Justices along in managing the affairs of the Court, the deteriorating condition of services generally and the state of the litigations department. "At the meeting, Your Lordship agreed that welfare committee be Constituted to compile and forward our demands. On the 24th day of March 2022, the welfare committee submitted to Your Lordship request for review of electricity allowance because of the increase in electricity tariff nationwide. The welfare Committee also submitted our request for diesel allowance, because of the epileptic electricity supply, the astronomical hike in the price of diesel and the fact that Justices require electricity to work at home. "The Committee also requested for the restoration of our monthly Internet allowance, because we require uninterrupted Internet service in order to have access to materials online to write our judgments. Your Lordship received and ignored these demands since 24th March 2022. "At the Justices meeting, we intimated your Lordship that some Justices sworn on the 6th day of November 2020 were yet to be accommodated by the Court. Your Lordship promised to take up the issue that day. To date Your Lordship has not taken any step in this direction. "With regard to Justice’s vehicles, several are due for replacement, while the new Justices have not received their full complement of vehicles to date. Moreover, some of the vehicles supplied to the Justices are either refurbished or substandard. Your Lordship has not taken steps to address this problem. "At the meeting we also discussed training. In the past Justices were nominated to attend two to three foreign workshops and trainings per annum with an accompanying person for reasons of age. Since Your Lordship’s assumption of office Justices only attended, two workshops in Dubai and Zanzibar. They were not accorded the privilege of travelling with accompanying persons as was the practice. Your Lordship totally ignored this demand and yet travelled with your spouse, children and personal staff. We DEMAND to know what has become of our training funds, have they been diverted, or is it a plain denial? Your Lordship may also remember that the National Assembly has increased the budgetary allocation of the Judiciary. We find it strange that in spite of the upward review of our budgetary allocation, the Court cannot cater for our legitimate entitlements. This is unacceptable! "Another issue discussed was the provision of qualified legal assistants. We are aware that even lower Courts provide legal assistants for their Justices and Judges. The Supreme Court, apart from being the highest Court in the land, is a policy Court. "We are confronted with various complex legal issues of national significance with the addition of time bound matters coming in between our regular Court sittings. We require qualified legal assistants in order to offer our best. This demand has not been accorded any attention by the Honourable Chief Justice. The state of health care in the Court has deteriorated; the Supreme Court clinic has become a mere consulting clinic. Drugs are not available to treat minor ailments. There is general lack of concern for Justices who require immediate or emergency medical intervention. Your Lordship has not addressed the issue of our rules Court. The Rules of Court are the immediate tools employed by Justices to dispense Justice to Court users. Your Lordship has kept the amended Rules of Court for almost three years now, awaiting your signature. We strongly believe the new rules will aid speedy dispensation of Justice. Recently, the Chief Registrar served Justices with an internal memo, that electricity would be supplied to the Court between the hours of 8am and 4pm daily, for lack of diesel. The implication of this memo is that the Justices must finish their work and close before 4pm. Your Lordship with all due respect, this is the peak of the degeneration of the Court; it is the height of decadence, and clear evidence of the absence of probity and moral rectitude. Your Lordship, this act alone portends imminent danger to the survival of this Court and the Judiciary as an institution, which is gradually drifting to extinction. The Judiciary is an arm of Government. The Supreme Court of Nigeria, just like the Presidential Villa and the National Assembly, is the seat of the Judiciary as an arm of Government. The implication of the memo is that this arm of Government is potentially shut down. May God never allow that day. "Your Lordship, this is a wake up call. Your Lordship must take full responsibility as our leader. You must not concession your responsibility to people who have no responsibility or stake in preserving and defending the dignity of the Institution. "Your Lordship occupies a position of leadership. We will not wait for the total collapse of the institution. We must not abandon our responsibility to call Your lordship to order in the face of these sad developments that threaten our survival as an institution. "We have done our utmost best to send a wake up call to Your Lordship. A stich in time saves nine. Finally, Your Lordship the choice is now yours. It is either you quickly and swiftly take responsibility and address these burning issues or we will be compelled to further steps immediately. May this day never come. This petition finally nailed the coffin of the former CJN. Apparently disturbed by this development, the former CJN replied stating the obvious that he was not the cause of their woes heaping the blame at the doorsteps of the Federal Government. In his response the CJN said that he is not responsible for the supreme court justices financial woes but rather attributed the blame to a collective woeful working condition. Justices Mohammad who was reacting through his spokesman, Mr Ahuraka Isah said, the Federal Government had not reviewed the entitlement of justices for about 15 years now. Come to think of it the FG did not increase judiciary budget for 4 years from 2018 to 2021. Only in 2022 it was increased from N110b to N120b.Yet Buhari government appointed 8 justice for the apex court within the period without budget for it. “Mind you 2 Supreme Court justices died within the period. Besides, about 4 retired and all that required attendant payment of gratuities and allowances for the departed and retirees. According to a source, his response was like trying to bring to life a dead man because the harm has been done already. He said the CJN was "too far from his colleagues and writing the petition was their last option. Reacting to this development, Mike Ozekhome, SAN described the move by the CJN as a wrong one that would yield negative results. He said the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, should not have reacted the way he did to the protest of his brother Justices of the Supreme Court. He said the CJN should have reassured the 14 serving Justices of the Supreme Court who protested about their deplorable working condition that he will take up their complaints with the seriousness they deserved. The apex court Justices had in a leaked letter, revealed that there was no improvement in their working condition and the administration of the court, among other things. “We demand to know what has become of our training funds, have they been diverted, or is it a plain denial?” the justices had asked. But the CJN faulted his brother justices for airing their grievances in the public, adding that he was in the process of addressing their needs. He stated that “the high cost of electricity tariff and diesel” which is used to run power in the court, “are a national problem.” But Ozekhome, in a statement made available to journalists, stated that the CJN should not have been so defensive in his reaction, adding that he should have supported his brother justices to face the legislative and executive arm of government regarding upward review of budgetary allocation to the judiciary. The senior lawyer stated that the CJN needs to pacify the justices, adding that before they wrote the protest letter, “they must have complained severally, and serially, quietly in secret, in the underground, without being heard, or their complaints being remedied.” His statement partly reads: “Recently, in an unprecedented manner in the 58 years annals of the Supreme Court of Nigeria , all the 14 serving Justices of the Supreme Court protested their horrific welfare and deplorable conditions of service to the Chief Justice of Nigeria ( CJN ). “Who did this to this revered institution? “The CJN, taking the issues seriatim through Isah Ahuraka, his spokesperson, said replied inter alia, that the apex court does not exist outside the economic and socio-political environment in which the country has found itself. It affects the apex court just as it bites everyone. “The CJN may be right, based on facts available to him as the head of the third arm of government. “However, it must be noted that the entire annual allocation meant for the Supreme Court is like a drop of water in an oasis. “These Supreme Court Justices are members of the same society that we live in and they reside in it. They have their wives and husbands to care for; they have their children and teeming dependants to take care of. “I do not believe that the CJN was arguing that because the parlous economy affects everybody, the Justices of the Supreme Court should perish. No. He may not have put it quite reassuringly. “What I expected the CJN to have done is to have balmed their oozing bruises; bandaged their bleeding economic sores and say ‘’Ok, I have heard you loud and clear. “I am going to take up your complaints and champion your cause before the executive and legislative arms of government, arms that have turned themselves into rampaging bulldogs. “As the head of the Judiciary which is the third arm of the government, I will make sure that you have more allocation, your welfare enhanced and your life made better.’’ “So, I expect the CJN to take up this matter with the seriousness of like yesterday. Brief on the former CJN:   Justice Muhammad was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2006 but was sworn in on 7 January 2007 from where he was appointed CJN by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 25, 2019, following the removal of Justice Walter Onnoghen over allegations of false asset declaration. Born on 31 December 1953 at Doguwa-Giade Local Government Area of Bauchi State, he attended Government Secondary School, Azare where he obtained the West Africa School Certificate in 1973 before he later proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University where he received an LL. B degree in Islamic law in 1980. He later obtained an LL.M degree and a PhD in law from the same university in 1985 and 1998 respectively.