The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NBA

  • 31 jostle for positions in NBA Executive

    31 jostle for positions in NBA Executive

    As the succession race among members of  the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) assumes momentum, about 31 persons have signified their intention to contest election into the association’s Executive Committee.

    Those who have shown interest in replacing the current Executive led by Augustine Alegeh (SAN), include renowned lawyer Joe Gazama (SAN), who is vying for the position of the association’s President.

    Gazama and others emerged at the formal opening of “expression of interest/nomination form,” which was done in the presence of aspirants, their representatives and observers at the NBA’s national headquarters in Abuja on Saturday.

    Electoral Committee Chairman, Kenneth Mozia (SAN), who supervised the exercise, assured all that his committee will  do its best to conduct a free, fair and credible election, and one that will serve as a model for future elections in the country and beyond.

  • CJ, NBA, others hail retired judge  

    The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Olufunmilayo  Atilade has described  Justice Adebisi  Kayode-Ogunmekan (rtd) as a woman with profound intellectual depth.

    Her deep knowledge of legal jurisprudence, the CJ said, is demonstrated in her judicial pronouncements.

    Justice Atilade spoke at a valedictory court session in honour of Justice Kayode-Ogunmekan.

    According to her, Justice Kayode-Oyemekun’s wealth of experience and ingenious resourcefulness at the Bar and in the Public service proved valuable as they were brought to bear on the job and earned her the deserved elevation to the High Court Bench almost two decades ago.

    “Not only has our retiree proved her worth as a jurist of immense quality, Her Ladyship has also stood the test of time. A woman of excellence with a keen eye for details, whose strength of character was ably exemplified in her reliability, uprightness and forthrightness. Little wonder that she is loved and admired by all, including her brother and sister judges in the Lagos State Judiciary,” the CJ said.

    Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association of Nigeria, Lagos Branch, Martin Ogunleye described the retired judge as an asset to the state judiciary. He said she promoted reconciliation in many cases that came before her.

    Ogunleye   added: “We at the Lagos Branch of NBA wish you a deserved rest and blissful retirement after 38 years of fruitful and rewarding public service, you have played your part and history will be kind to you when your role and time on the bench is chronicled.”

    Justice Kayode-Oyemekun in her remarks,  attributed her success at both the public service and the judiciary to the grace of God.

    She expressed her profound appreciation to the state judiciary for a well deserved honour bestowed on her by all and sundry in the justice sector and more especially her brother and sister judges at the bench.

    She used the occasion to call on appropriate authorities to provide better welfare packages for legal practitioners while also advising lawyers and judges alike to be mindful of their limitations in all legal proceedings by holding tenaciously to the guiding principles of the legal practice.

    Justice Kayode-Ogunmekan was born into the family of Prince Michael Adedipupo Ogun, the late Olofin Ajaiye of Orugbo Ikosi-Ejirin LCDA, in Lagos State on August 12, 1950.

    She attended the Anglican Girls School, Broad Street, Lagos from January 1956-Decemebr 1958, and Children’s Home School, Molete, Ibadan between January 1959 – December 1963.

    She enrolled at the prestigious Queen’s School, Ede in 1963 where she successfully completed her West African School Certificate Examination with distinction between 1964 and 1968.

    She thereafter proceeded to Ijebu Ode Grammar School for her Higher Secondary Education Certificate (HSC) from 1969-1970.

    She went further to obtain her General Certificate Examination (A-Levels), and her excellent performance in her chosen subjects earned her a direct admission to the University of Lagos, Akoka in 1971 for her Law degree. She was called to the Bar in July, 1975.

  • Ex-NBA president rejects Grazing Bill

    Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Joseph Daudu (SAN), has rejected the National Grazing Bill pending before the House of Representatives.

    He backed Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, who said the Bill was against the Land Use Act.

    Daudu said the proposed law also breaches the Constitution and must not be allowed in a democracy.

    “It is unconscionable and a breach of the Constitution and the Land Use Act to seize land and give it to an itinerant businessman known and styled as the Fulani herdsman in a capitalist democracy to advance his own business.

    “If the Fulanis require land for grazing they should buy it just like every industrialist buys land to set up a factory.

    “They should learn to buy land and grow grass (alfalfa) on it and sell it to themselves. Government has no business promoting the business of the President’s kinsmen and killing other peoples’ businesses.

    “If not, let us boycott the eating of beef. Then the problem will go away,” Daudu said in a statement.

     

  • NBA seeks reversal of judge’s retirement

    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch has appealed to Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to reinstate Justice Oluyinka Gbajabiamila

    The National Judicial Council (NJC) sent the judge on compulsory retirement for alleged falsification of age, but the NBA is seeking a reversal.

    The appeal was contained in an April 21  letter  addressed to the governor and titled: ”re: Compulsory retirement of Honourable Justice  Gbajabiamila: Letter of appeal for your Excellency’s intervention”. It was signed by the Branch Chairman and Secretary, Dotun Adetunji and Blessing Eneh.

    The letter stated in part: “On behalf of the Executive and all members of the above-named Branch of the NBA, we hereby appeal passionately for your Excellency’s intervention on the decision of the National Judicial Council on compulsory retirement of Honourable Justice Oluyinka Gbajabiamila on Tuesday, the 19th of April, 2016.

    “Honourable Justice Oluyinka Gbajabiamila an incorruptible, honest, thorough, upright and God-fearing Judge who is one of the best Judges in Lagos State as his judgments are per merit, does not deserve the decision of the National Judicial Council.

    “Moreover your Excellency Sir, Justice Oluyinka Gbajabiamila is a man of integrity that lawyers and even litigants vouch for. We cannot but have Honourable Justice Oluyinka Gbajabiamila back on the bench. We plead passionately.

    “We pray your Excellency for your quick intervention to ensure that the decision is reversed.

    “Thanking your Excellency in anticipated swift action,” it stated.

  • Assaulted lawyer: Police, NBA embrace dialogue, peace

    Assaulted lawyer: Police, NBA embrace dialogue, peace

    Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP) Fatai Owoseni yesterday reiterated the need for dialogue and peaceful coexistence among Nigerians.

    He stated this during a visit to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch, to pacify the association, following the alleged assault of its member, Sunday Elimihe, by some policemen attached to Onipanu Division.

    Owoseni, who praised the lawyer as well as the NBA for not letting the issue escalate, emphasised the importance of dialogue in resolving issues.

    The police boss also assured that he would investigate alleged malpractices engaged by personnel of the Onipanu Division, just as he urged the lawyers to follow due process when seeking policemen to aid in judgment execution.

    “We are not here to judge who is wrong or right. I came to visit you people as I promised and to also commend you for not letting the issue go out of hand. I told the lawyer that I will foot his hospital bills and my concern is for him to be healthy.

    “The lawyer has his fault, which I will tell him when we see again. But no matter what, the policeman should not have assaulted him. The police are not 100 per cent clean, but we have done so much to improve professionalism.

    “There are bad eggs everywhere and the police are products of the society,” he said.

    The NBA chairman, Yinka Farombi, noted that there has been decline in crime rate under Owoseni.

    He, however, decried the treatment meted him by the Onipanu Division after he went there to see the Divisional Police Officer.

  • Crisis rocks NBA in Edo

    Crisis rocks NBA in Edo

    • Benin lawyers threatens to expel Alegeh

    Members of the Benin branch of the Nigeria Bar Association have threatened to expel National President of the NBA, Austin Alegeh, over the removal of their chairman, Princess Patience Iyomon.

    A letter from the General Secretary of the NBA, Mazi Afam Osigwe, had directed Vice Chairman of the NBA Benin branch, Emmanuel Ojekhua to take over chairmanship and management of the branch including its bank accounts and properties.

    The letter dated February 20, 2016 said Iyomon was removed by the National Executive Committee of the NBA at its meeting in Jos, Plateau State.

    Angered by the contents of the letter sacking their chairman, some members of the Benin branch stormed the secretariat and saw that locks and keys to the secretariat were changed.

    They broke into the secretariat and held an enlarged congress of the NBA at the instance of Elders of the branch.

    Some lawyers at the congress who pleaded anonymity said the removal of Iyomon was because the NBA joined in a suit against the Land Use Charge.

    At the meeting presided over by Barr. Nosa Peter Osifo, the lawyers dissociated themselves from the Jos meeting and expressed confidence in the leadership of the disposed chairman.

    They said the NBA NEC lacked the constitutional powers to remove an elected chairman of a branch.

    Five members of the Benin branch executive were suspended by the congress.

    They included the branch Public Relation Officer, Ebosele Ohifoh, Vice Chairman Emmanuel Ojekhua, Secretary David Maduku, Treasurer J.J Osadiaye and Pearl Agbale.

    Osifo said, “We see the Jos resolution as an affront and an attempt to ridicule Benin branch. We will not allow it. We are not timid”.

    “We shall resist any despotic attempt in NBA. The NBA president is from here. He should not annoy us. If he did, we will expel him from this branch because we will not allow him to spoil our future chances.”

    Reacting, Ebosele described the congress that suspended them as illegal and that the NBA constitution does not recognize the Elders.

    Ebosele insisted that Iyomon was removed legally by the NEC.

  • Like NBA like the NASS

    SIR: The recent invitation and subsequent arraignment of a prominent lawyer, Rickey Tarfa, SAN, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) offers an uncanny parallel with the trial of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki.

    The two public figures who are deemed innocent until prima facie cases are established against them have taken undue shelter in esprit de corps even when such blinded solidarity is in breach of ethical fecundity.

    The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), never given to frivolity and abrasive pursuits before now, is gradually derailing from its core values with its leading lights leading almost a hundred lawyers to court in solidarity with a colleague whose trial has not even begun.

    What would be the position of NBA if at the end of the day the EFCC findings,  now in public domain eventually lead to the conviction of the senior advocate? Would that not amount to a collateral professional blunder?

    The same misguided esprit de corps subsists in the case of Bukola Saraki with the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The mass representation of the majority of the Senate at Saraki’s every court appearance casts a slur not only on the integrity of the National Assembly (NASS), but also impugns upon the moral sensibility of the Nigerian public.

    The best that is expected from the two institutions is to present a team of legal representation at the trials if they so incline and eschew the unwieldy obstructionism veiled in solidarity.

     

    • Bukola Ajisola,

    Victoria Island, Lagos

  • CJN, NBA President fault corruption tag on Judiciary

    CJN, NBA President fault corruption tag on Judiciary

    The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, and the President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Augustine Alegeh (SAN) yesterday decried the tag on the Judiciary as corrupt.

    Justice Mohammed said the barrage of criticisms against the judiciary is as a result of ignorance of the operations of the judicial system while Alegeh faulted the general condemnation of the third arm of government.

    They spoke in Abuja at a valedictory court session held in honour of retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Muhammad Saifullahi Muntaka-Coomassie.

    The judiciary has been under attack recently over its handling of corruption and electoral cases. Also recently, President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as expressing doubt about the commitment of the Judiciary to his government’s anti-corruption war.

    The CJN said: “I make bold to declare that the qualities of conscience and duty are essential to the functioning of our Judiciary.”

    He noted that the Judiciary, “though constantly striving to redress wrongs and tilt the balance in favour of that which is right, has recently had to face the backlash of misguided opinions fashioned without due consideration of the law and rationale for the system of government that we operate.

    “The judiciary is duty bound to act in accordance with the dictates of the law as it stands and not as critics would like it to be. In this sense, naive idealism is, but a pale limitation of legal certainty and it is in observing the career and jurisprudence of such eminent jurists as my lord, Honourable Justice Muntaka-Coomassie that we see this most clearly.”

    Justice Mohammed spoke glowingly about Justice Muntaka-Coomassie, who started as a Magistrate in Kaduna. He expressed the hope that he will now have time for his family and “to catch up with old friends. I am also sure that it will be great to lie in bed till any chosen hour on a Monday morning.”

    Alegeh deplored what he described as the “generalisation and/or categorisation” of the Judiciary as corrupt and a stumbling block to the Buhari administration’s war against corruption

    The NBA President also pledged the support of the bar to resist any attempt to intimidate or harass judicial officers.

    “Whilst acknowledging that there may be a few bad eggs in the system, the NBA restates unequivocally that ýthe categorisation of the entire judiciary as corrupt is a misconception and will stand solidly behind the judiciary in any attempt to intimidate or harass its personnel.”

    “The NBA however wishes to souýnd a note of warning to the few bad eggs in the system to desist from further causing untoward embarrassment to the judicial arm of government and will henceforth petition any judicial officer involved in or suspected to be involved in any corrupt or fraudulent transaction to the appropriate quarters for action. We believe that a word is enough for the wise and that wise counsel will prevail in this regard.

    Alegeh called for the full compliment of justices of the Supreme Court from 15 to “the constitutional quota of 21.”.

    He suggested an arrangement where the apex court occasionally holds special sessions in various regions to deal with cases from such regions, an arrangement he argued, was capable of reducing the litany of appeals and workload of the court.

    On welfare, Alegeh suggested the extension of the current practice of building houses for retiring CJNs o other Justices of the apex court

    Justice Muntaka-Coomassie disappointment about the state of affairs in the Judiciary.

    “I am using this medium to appeal to governments at all levels to free the Judiciary from the bondage it has been subjected to over the years. Let it not just be said to be independent, but should indeed be seen to be transparently independent.

    “There should not be any string attached. We should not also like to negotiate our financial independence. Let the Judiciary take its destiny in its hands. Enough of being fed with the crumbs from the master’s table.

    I have devoted 38 of my 70 years to services to my fatherland. I came into service with great enthusiasm and expectations, but unfortunately, I am today retiring with maginal satisfaction. My regret, from all indications, is the regret of many of my retired colleagues.

    “The Nigerian Judiciary is only third arm of government on paper. It has always been treated like a paper tiger in the scheme of things. I want to use this opportunity to call on the relevant authorities to put the Judiciary in a proper perspective. It should be placed and treated as the third arm of government in every meeting and programs as enshrined in the Constitution,” Justice Muntaka-Coomassie said.

  • Magu to NBA: War against corruption not for faint-hearted

    Magu to NBA: War against corruption not for faint-hearted

    The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, on Wednesday said the war against corruption is not for the faint-hearted and asked Nigerian lawyers not to support looters.

    He also said the anti-corruption agency is not one-sided as being insinuated.

    He begged the Nigerian Bar Association to purge itself of bad eggs who are “vandals in the temple of justice.”

    Magu, who spoke during a meeting with executive members of the NBA, led by the president, Mr. Augustine Oyarekhua Alegeh (SAN) said EFCC has no political affiliation.

    He said: “It has become necessary to have this meeting given the widespread corruption pervading the land. As you all know, corruption is probably the greatest problem facing our dear country Nigeria and it has to be nipped in the bud timely.

    “The war against economic and financial crimes is fought on a number of flanks, some of which include fraud, corruption and money laundering.

    “However, there is no flank from which the war is waged, that the input and effects of professionals such as lawyers, bankers and journalists are not felt, either as part of the problem or as critical ingredients in the solution mix.

    “Law enforcement, just as the judiciary, encompassing the bar and bench, is a critical link in the justice delivery system of any society.  The two, whilst they operate independent of one another, cannot afford, in the interest of the society, to pull in divergent directions.

    “I dare say that even when opinions and tactics differ, the interests of the two blocs cannot but converge on the overriding interest of the people.

    “It was along that line, that I pledged on my appointment (and have maintained ever since),that I would discharge my duties as the head of the EFCC, guided solely by the fear of Almighty God, the overriding interest of our fatherland, Nigeria and the Rule of Law.

    “I have tried to keep faith with those principles, in appreciation of the enormous burden placed on my shoulders by Mr. President and the huge expectations of ordinary Nigerians.

    In the history of our country, there has never been a more destructive force than corruption and the war that we have been recruited to fight, is not one for the faint at heart nor is it a war of half-measures.

    “I can tell you without fear of contradiction, that we at the EFCC are totally committed to the war against economic and financial crimes, including corruption and money laundering.”

  • NBA asks EFCC to apologise for SAN’s arrest

    NBA asks EFCC to apologise for SAN’s arrest

    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to apologise for arresting a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on a court premises.

    At a briefing yesterday, NBA Lagos branch chairman Martins Ogunleye said it is a desecration of the hallowed precincts of a court for a security agency to arrest anyone there.

    NBA said from the Victorian ages, the court and the church are considered hallowed, adding that it is an aberration to arrest anyone in such places.

    The association condemned the overzealousness exhibited by security agencies, saying they should be called to order.

    The EFCC, last Friday arrested Chief Rickey Tarfa (SAN) at the Lagos State High Court, for allegedly obstructing the rearrest of his clients, who were on trial for another case.

    NBA said even if Tarfa committed an offence, he should have been treated with more dignity. Besides, the suspects came to court on their own having been on bail, said NBA.

    The NBA chairman said the association’s President, Augustine Alegeh (SAN), who came to secure Tarfa’s release, was kept waiting for over seven hours on Saturday and was not allowed to see Tarfa.

    The association said Tarfa was not allowed to have a change of clothes until he was released on administrative bail to Alegeh on Sunday.

    “While we, as a body of lawyers, support the anti-corruption crusade, we want to urge that crusade itself must be fought within the ambit of the law. To do otherwise will be to invite a situation of anarchy, and will occasion injustice.

    “While we do not want to go into the merits of why Mr Tarfa was arrested, we want to note strongly that first, it is an aberration for anybody to be arrested within the premises of a court. And the matter is made even more serious when the person arrested is a lawyer practicing his trader within the premises of the court.

    “There are certain places where you do not arrest a man, right from the Victorian times. You don’t arrest a man within the precincts of a court or church. These places are hallowed places, never to be desecrated,” Ogunleye said.

    NBA also condemned the treatment meted to Tarfa, saying: “No matter the type of offence a man commits, his treatment even whilst in detention must be humane and not the kind that will debase or derogate from his rights as enshrined under the Constitution, which protects every citizen from inhuman and degrading treatment, including torture.”

    Tarfa was arrested by EFCC operatives while allegedly attempting to prevent the re-arrest of his client, Ghanhoue Sourous Nazaire and Zenou Modeste, both of them  Beninoise Nationals, charged with alleged forgery of their company resolution and Form CA7.

    EFCC said they allegedly conspired amongst themselves  on May 28, 2007 to forge Rana Prestige’s ordinary resolution which they claimed was signed by Mrs Rachadatou Abdou, who co-owns the company.

    The commission said they allegedly forged a Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Form 7 dated November 22, 2005, claiming it was also signed by Mrs Abdou.

    They were also accused of uttering of forged document by presenting the Form 7 to CAC as genuine.

    The charge includes conspiracy to commit a felony, forgery and uttering of false document, which violate section 516, 467 and 468 of the Criminal Code, Cap C17, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.

    The accused persons pleaded not guilty.

    EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwajaren, was not available for comments as his mobile phones were switched off.