The Supreme Court of Nigeria disposed of 411 cases with full judgments in the 2025/2026 legal year, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, has disclosed.
Justice Kekere-Ekun spoke on Monday at the special session held in Abuja to formally open the 2026/2027 legal year, where she gave an account of the apex court’s workload.
According to her, a total of 2,456 matters came before the court within the period under review. The breakdown showed 1,179 general civil motions, 573 criminal motions, 13 motions relating to Sharia, and 676 appeals.
Of the appeals, she listed 433 as general civil appeals, 212 criminal appeals, 19 political appeals, 12 Sharia appeals and 10 originating summons.
She compared the performance with the preceding legal year when the court handled 2,280 matters and delivered 369 judgments and rulings, noting that the numbers only reflect institutional activity and not the full picture of operations.
The CJN described the outcome for the year as encouraging but said more still needs to be done to improve justice delivery.
She said deliberate efforts have been made to strengthen case management and reduce delay. Between March 23 and December 17, 2026, she said the E-Diary Office listed 1,385 matters for regular sittings, comprising 1,021 motions and 364 appeals, with 733 of them being old cases purposely brought forward.
In addition, 178 moribund cases were terminated in chambers, while 125 matters already concluded were removed from the active cause list.
Kekere-Ekun said the steps show a more intentional approach to decongesting the docket, identifying pending cases and clearing decided matters from the system.
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