BEVERLY HILLS, December 21, (THEWILL) – Nigeria nominee and Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice Ishaq Usman Bello, has lost the bid to become a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) following his uninspiring performance at the poll.
President Muhammadu BuhariI had nominated Bello as Nigeria’s candidate on June 20.
The results of the election which was concluded on Thursday and made available on the ICC website showed that Bello polled 12 votes–the second-lowest–only after Milandou Prosper, the nominee from The Republic of Congo, out of 117 in the first round of the election.
In the second round, Bello polled only five votes out of 110 votes, which represents 4.5% of the total votes cast.
According to the results, in the second round, Bello garnered only 5 votes out of 110 votes.
The ICC advisory committee on the nomination of judges had earlier ranked Bello low in October, giving the indication that he may not be selected in the final election.
Although the FCT chief judge has a Master degree in International Criminal Law from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the ICC said Bello lacked knowledge of the workings of the court.
The ICC, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, prosecutes international crimes, crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and aggression by nationals of the 123-member countries.
According to the Rome Statutes, every three years, the Assembly replaces one-third of its 18 judges by electing six new judges for non-renewable terms of nine years.
For candidates to be elected, they must garner two-thirds of the votes from the state parties.
Based on this parameter, only Korner Joanna and Lordkipanidze Gocha, nominees of the United Kingdom and Georgia respectively, emerged victorious out of the 18 candidates
