Justice Walter Onnoghen’s name has been removed from the National Judicial Council (NJC) members’ list to apparently prepare the ground for Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour’s emergence as the Council’s Deputy Chairman.

According to the Punch, the altered membership list of the NJC which was observed on the council’s website at about 7.15pm on Sunday also revealed that Onnoghen now occupies the 16th position on the list of former Chief Justices of Nigeria.

The list, which reportedly displayed 23 members instead of the full membership of 24, showed that the Council has yet to have a Deputy Chairman as provided for in the constitution.

Following Onnoghen’s exit, it was gathered that Justice Rhodes-Vivour, as the second most senior Justice of the Supreme Court would be announced as the Deputy Chairman at the next meeting of the Council.

Paragraph 20 (a) of Part I of the Third Schedule to the Constitution makes ‘the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court’ a member of the council and provides that the person ‘shall be the Deputy Chairman’.