The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, has advised judges not to die on the job, but retire if they can no longer do well on the bench.

Mr Alogba gave the advice at the public presentation of a book written by the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN) in Ikeja on Wednesday.

The book titled: The Supreme Court of Nigeria; History, Establishment, Jurists and Speeches,’’ was co-authored by Mr Abdulrasheed Ibrahim.

Mr Alogba said that judges should retire from the bench if they were no longer in good health.

According to him, regardless of the retirement age, judges should be able to eat the fruits of their labour.

He said: “When it comes to a time until death do you and service part, I do not agree. You must access yourself when you are tired, do not wait, please go home and rest. There is nothing you want to do again which you could not have done on the bench, before you got to the stage of being tired, if you are really interested in the work. You do not need to die and have a valedictory for you, so retire if you are no longer in good health.”

The chief judge said that the issue of retirement age should be an individual thing.

According to him, good health is by God’s grace and they should retire when they no longer have it.

He said though the retirement benefit might be peanuts, he did not think any judge who had been in practice for quite sometime before coming to the bench would be a poor man.

“Ostentation apart, but to lead a simple, quiet and reasonably comfortable life, any judge who has spent 10 to 15 years on the bench, should be able to do that. So why do you want to kill yourself on the job and then people will just collect your benefit after you have died.

“The law has spoken, speak for yourself and assess if you are mentally and physically capable of going on with the work. But if your answer is no, go back home,” the chief judge said.

(NAN)