An association of Nigerian legislative lawyers has filed petitions against the Chief Judge, CJ, of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, over alleged discriminatory and prejudicial actions against non-litigation legal practitioners in the country.

In the petition signed by Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, Executive Secretary, the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, urged the National Judicial Council, NJC, and the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, to investigate the alleged discriminatory and prejudicial actions by the CJ.

ALDRAP accused the CJ of frustrating its moves to introduce the Blue Silks rank for Nigerian non-litigation lawyers, as an alternative to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, title which is usually awarded to lawyers engaged in litigation practice by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC.

In a petition dated August 18, 2026, the lawyers’ association urged the NJC to investigate the conduct of the CJ in a suit involving ALDRAP and the LPPC.

Parts of the petition read, “Is it not a violation of the judicial code of conduct for the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court before whom a lawsuit was pending, the said lawsuit involving two litigants namely Mr. Kabir Akanbi, Secretary of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) and the LPPC to sit as the Chief Judge on a panel to conduct a separate investigation and indeed pass prejudicial comments (before the date 13th May 2026) on the same subject matter of a lawsuit (the legality of the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (SCN).

“As can be seen from the report attached, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and two other members of his investigation team were operating from the foregone conclusion that the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (SCN) as introduced for non-litigation Nigerian lawyers by ALDRAP was illegal. They were investigating why the three SANs were named as matron and patrons respectively of the said ALDRAP which was already prejudged as “guilty” of promoting an “illegal rank” of Blue Silks.

“Considering that the Hon. Chief Judge of the Federal High Court is a superior judicial official of Hon. Justice James Omotosho, there was the likelihood that the prejudicial report published on 11th May 2026 by the said Chief Judge of the Federal High Court most definitely swayed the mind of Hon. Justice James Omotosho who delivered the judgment on 13th May 2026, against the ALDRAP.

“We respectfully request the National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate the reason why the Hon. Chief Judge of the Federal High Court re-assigned the lawsuit from Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court Abuja to Hon. Justice James Omotosho after ALDRAP filed the case in November 2025 whereas Hon. Justice James Omotosho at the time that the case was assigned to him in March 2026 had already been confirmed for elevation to the Court of Appeal.

“Could it be that the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court did not want the Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar to deliver a judgment in favour of ALDRAP and the Blue Silks rank considering that Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar had delivered a judgment on 27th January 2026 that went against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the elite bourgeois or the “establishment” within the Nigerian legal profession?”

The lawyers’ association said it is prepared to provide additional oral and documentary evidence to substantiate the allegations.

In a separate petition, dated August 19, 2027, ALDRAP urged the CCB to investigate alleged violation of Section 5 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, 1991, by the CJ, who it accused of conflict of interest by accepting to serve as chairman of a panel of the Disciplinary and Ethics Sub-Committee of the LPPC in May 2026, which was constituted to investigate three SANs appointed as patrons and matrons of ALDRAP.

“Instead of recusing himself or at least informing the LPPC that as Chief Judge of the Federal High Court he was already aware that the subject matter of the legality of the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (SCN) was already the subject matter of litigation before the Federal High Court Abuja Division. The Incorporated Trustees of ALDRAP was the plaintiff in the said lawsuit.

“He failed to inform them that in his capacity as Chief Judge of the Federal High Court he had sometime in November 2025 and subsequently in March 2026 assigned and reassigned the said lawsuit to Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar and Hon. Justice James Omotosho, respectively,” the petition read.

ALDRAP stressed that the CJ should have waited until completion and delivery of judgment in the said lawsuit before he commenced to sit as chairman of the panel of the LPPC Disciplinary and Ethics Sub-Committee.

According to ALDRAP, the conduct of the CJ amounted to abuse of powers, going by the provisions of Section 16 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, 1991.

The petition added, “We respectfully seek an urgent intervention and investigation of this our formal complaint which is premises on violations of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, 1991 and is completely different from our other petition against Hon. Justice Tsoho which is before the National Judicial Council-NJC. In the petition before the NJC, he is alleged to have violated the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officials.

“We believe that when all agencies of the government play their part in discharge of their statutory responsibilities, through a coordinated and multi-dimensional approach, it would collectively minimise the incidences of violation of the relevant laws and regulations by public officials such as Hon. Justice Tsoho, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.”