Meet The First Five Female Judges In Nigeria

Modupe Omo-Eboh (1922 – 2002) 

Modupe Omo-Eboh

Modupe Omo-Eboh was a lawyer and jurist who was Nigeria’s first female judge.

Omo-Eboh was called to the English bar at Lincoln’s Inn on 14 March 1953. She worked as a lawyer, Magistrate, Chief Magistrate, Administrator-General and Public Trustee, Director of Public Prosecutions and Acting Solicitor-General before she became a judge in Benin City on Thursday, 13 November 1969, the first woman appointed to the High Courts of Nigeria. In 1976, she was appointed to the Lagos judiciary.

Omo-Eboh died on 25 February 2002.

Dulcie Ethel Adunola Oguntoye (1923 – 2018)

Dulcie Ethel Adunola Oguntoye

Dulcie Ethel Adunola Oguntoye was an English-born Nigerian jurist who was the country’s second female judge. She renounced her British citizenship in order to serve in the Nigerian judiciary in 1960. In 1961, she joined the Western Region Magistracy. In 1967, she became Chief Magistrate in Lagos.

In February 1976, Oguntoye was appointed to the Lagos State High Court, the first woman on the Lagos State bench and the second female judge in Nigeria after Modupe Omo-Eboh. She was transferred to the newly created Oyo State in 1978, and retired from the bench in 1988. In 1978, she was named an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic by Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo. She was honoured as the Iyalode of the town of Imesi-ile.

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Aloma Mariam Mukhtar (1944 – ) 

Aloma Mariam Mukhtar

Aloma Mukhtar is a Nigerian jurist and former Chief Justice of Nigeria. She was called to the English Bar in November, 1966 and to the Nigerian Bar in 1967.

President Goodluck Jonathan swore in Mukhtar on 16 July 2012 as the 13th indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, and conferred on her the Nigerian National Honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).

Mukhtar began her career in 1967 as Pupil State Counsel, Ministry of Justice, Northern Nigeria and rose through the ranks.

In her career, Mukhtar has been many firsts: she is the first female lawyer from Northern Nigeria, first female judge of the High Court in Kano State judiciary, the first female justice of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, the first female justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria.

Atinuke Omobonike Ige (1932 – 2003)

Atinuke Omobonike Ige

Atinuke Omobonike Amoke is a Nigerian lawyer and jurist. She is one of the country’s first female judges. Having schooled in London, she was called to the English Bar in 1959 and enrolled at the Nigerian Bar upon her return to the country in the same year.

She went into active private practice and was the only female lawyer in Ibadan at the time. She was appointed Magistrate in the Western region of Nigeria. Ige served as a Magistrate in various parts of the region including Ife, Oyo, Ilesha, Osogbo and Ibadan between 1962 – 1977.

In 1977, she was appointed a High Court Judge in Oyo State. However, in 1993, she was elevated to the Court of Appeal where she served in the Benin, Kaduna and Lagos divisions before she retired in 2002.

She died in 2003 after dedicating about 37 years of her life to the judiciary.

Roseline Ajoke Omotosho (Died 1999)

Roseline Ajoke Omotosho

Roseline Ajoke Omotosho was a Nigerian judge. From 12 April 1995 to 27 February 1996 she was Chief Judge of Lagos State. She was the first female Chief Judge in Nigeria, and indeed in West Africa.

She joined the High Court of Lagos State on 6 March 1978. She succeeded Justice Ayorinde as Chief Judge of Lagos State, taking office on 12 April 1995. On 27 February 1997 she stepped down, and was succeeded by Justice Olusola Thomas.

She died on 1 July 1999. At a service held in her honor, Justice Christopher Olatunde Segun appealed for divine intervention to stop the rate of deaths affecting the state judiciary. In 2015 she was immortalised by a new courthouse in Ikeja named after herself.

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