Former Lagos chairman calls on CJN to wade into bar crisis

Former Chairman, Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chijioke Okoli, SAN has urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen, GCON to wade into the crisis in the NBA by setting up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the NBA, which he described as ‘troubled.’

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria in a letter to the CJN noted that Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had “unequivocally and pointedly” nullified the amended 2015 NBA Constitution “and everything done or purported to have been done thereunder.”

His letter read, “The NBA leadership under Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, having been ushered into office on the basis of elections conducted under the said constitution, has unquestionably lost legal validity.”

Okoli further observed that he had on May 24, 2017 written to Mahmoud to draw his attention to these anomalies, adding that the crisis “requires decisive intervention by leaders of the Bar and all those primarily concerned with the administration of justice in our country.” Noting that rather than comply with the dictates of the judgment, the NBA leadership has ignored it.

He urged the Body of Benchers, of which the Chief Justice is chairman, to find a solution to the persisting situation.

To buttress his request for a caretaker committee, the former branch chairman said it was “informed by the fact of the total incapacitation of the officers of the NBA by the said court’s judgment against the backdrop of some provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act…”

According to Okoli, Section 10(2) – (5) of the LPA empowers the Body of Benchers to set up a Caretaker Committee “to manage the affairs of the NBA for a period not exceeding 12 months. The Caretaker Committee appears to be sorely needed to save the Association and the machinery of administration of justice in the country from other disputes.”

Okoli intimated Mahmoud on why it would be honourable to vacate office, saying: “Even more disconcerting, however, has been the nonchalance, if not disdain, which underpin the reactions of the office of NBA presidency under your watch to the judgment. It has proceeded as if nothing has happened.

“As weighty as they are, the untoward practical effects of your stance regarding the judgment as discussed in this letter probably pale into secondary importance in comparison with the damaging effect on the concept of rule of law. The NBA rightly professes rule of law as an article of faith, but its current stance under your watch is the antithesis of the sacred concept.”