Ishaq Bello, the nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari to become a judge at the International Criminal Court, ICC, has scored low in the selection process.
Mr Bello, the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, was nominated on June 20 by Mr Buhari as Nigeria’s candidate in June.
According to the results of the poll released by the International Court, the Nigerian nominee scored 12 votes out of the 117 votes in the first round of the election to emerge the second-lowest performer after the nominee of The Republic of Congo, Milandou Prosper.
Mr Bello’s performance dipped lower in the second round, polling only five votes out of 110 votes, which represents 4.5 per cent of the total votes cast.
Giving reason for his failure, the ICC said Mr Bello lacked knowledge of the workings of the court.
According to the Rome Statutes, the constitution of the ICC, 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.
Headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, the court prosecutes international crimes, crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and aggression by nationals of the 123-member countries.
