Supreme Court Handled 2,456 Matters, Delivered 411 Judgments in 2025/2026 Legal Year

The Supreme Court of Nigeria handled 2,456 matters and delivered 411 judgments during the 2025/2026 legal year, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has disclosed.

Kekere-Ekun announced the figures on Monday at a special session of the Supreme Court in Abuja to mark the commencement of the 2026/2027 legal year.

She said the matters handled included 1,179 general civil motions, 573 criminal motions, 13 Sharia-related motions and 676 appeals.

According to the CJN, the appeals comprised 433 general civil appeals, 212 criminal appeals, 19 political appeals, 12 Sharia appeals and 10 originating summons.

“From these matters, 411 judgments were delivered. During the preceding Legal Year, the Court handled 2,280 matters and delivered 369 judgments and rulings,” Kekere-Ekun said.

Although she described the figures as an indication of the court’s institutional activity, the CJN noted that they did not fully capture the scope of its operations. She said the court’s performance was encouraging but acknowledged that more work remained to be done.

Kekere-Ekun said the apex court had continued to prioritise docket management through measures aimed at reducing delays and tackling the accumulation of pending cases.

She disclosed that the court’s E-Diary Office scheduled 1,385 matters for regular sittings between March 23 and December 17, 2026. These comprised 1,021 motions and 364 appeals, including 733 older cases deliberately brought forward for hearing.

The CJN added that 178 moribund matters were disposed of in Chambers, while 125 cases that had already been concluded were identified and removed from the active list.

She said the measures reflected a deliberate effort to identify pending cases, prioritise older matters and eliminate concluded cases from the active docket.

According to Kekere-Ekun, the E-Diary Office remains central to the court’s efforts to improve efficiency, responsiveness and the delivery of justice to litigants as the new legal year begins.