A House of Representatives member, Dr Ali Ahmad, has urged the Federal Government to increase the number of Supreme Court judges to fast track the dispensation of justice.

Ahmad, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Ilorin, said the few judges in the court were being overworked.

"The Judges of the Supreme Court are being overworked.

"The judiciary is like a pyramid, from the magistrate court to area court, high court and Sharia Court, it gets narrower at the Court of Appeal and even more narrower at the Supreme Court.

"The more judges of the Supreme Court we have the better for the quick dispensation of cases.

"You will see that the average time that cases spend in the Supreme Court now is between three to seven years.

"The solutions could be multifaceted, but one of those is to increase the number of judges," Ahmad said.

He stressed that it was time for the Supreme Court to stop entertaining some cases from the Court of Appeal, as was done in the U.S.

"The Supreme Court should look at it and if there is nothing remarkable about the appeal, if the issue has been settled, it should just refer the case back to Court of Appeal and that means the Supreme Court has affirmed it.

"But we have this thing that says appeal is subscribe; we really need to look at that and do something about it," Ahmad, who chairs the House Committee on Judiciary, added.

He disclosed that the National Assembly had provided in the constitutional amendments, that, interlocutory appeals should not stop prosecution of criminal cases.

Ahmad said the provision was meant to reduce cases at the apex court.