The former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed said a constitutional amendment is needed to reduce the amount of appeals to the Supreme Court.

He said this on Thursday in his speech during a valedictory session organised for his exit from the bench.

He lamented the amount of appeals in the Supreme Court.

“Permit me to re-iterate my comments made during the opening of the 2016-2017 Legal Year when I opined that our Supreme Court is arguably the most overworked in the World.

“In the 2014-2015 Legal Year, the Supreme Court heard 1578 matters, consisting of 1000 motions and 569 substantive appeals, delivering 262 judgments.

“In 2015-2016 Legal Year, the court heard 1489 matters, consisting of 908 motions and 581 substantive appeals, delivering 268 judgments in that period,’’ he said.

He also said a total of 500 new appeals were filed in the Registry of the court in the 2015-2016 legal year.

“This figure shows that nearly ten appeals were filed per week, most of which were interlocutory in nature.

“Similarly, there were more than 5,000 outstanding appeals some of which have become academic in nature.

“The log-jams are the result of a free-for-all appeals process, which has been given the imprimatur of our constitution. It was obvious that urgent action was required,’’ he said.

Azeez