Innocent Anaba
P/HARCOURT—The show of strength between the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA over the decision of the association to boycott today’s swearing-in of the 30 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria by the Chief Justice entered a dramatic stage yesterday as the NBA renewed its earlier warning to members and the recipients not to attend the ceremony or risk sanctions.

Following the directive of the association to all its members at its Annual General Meeting, in Port Harcourt last Sunday, to boycott the ceremony should the event fails to hold on the original slated date, September 19, the Chief Justice on Wednesday said nothing would deter him from administering oath on the new silks today.

The CJN in a statement signed by the Deputy Director of Information at the Supreme Court, Mr Festus Akanbi said, “the newly appointed Senior Advocates of Nigeria will be sworn in as earlier announced on Friday August 26 2011 at 10 am at a Special Court Session of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

“All the information earlier disseminated to our esteemed invited guests and the general public remain valid”.

NBA issues fresh warning

In its immediate response to the CJN’s circular, the NBA yesterday issued a fresh warning to all the lawyers including the recipients not to attend the ceremony insisting that “any legal practitioner that attends the ceremony will not be referred to by members of the NBA with any rank he possesses and if in any NBA body such as the Body of Benchers will lose all privileges and be stripped of membership of any committee or body that the NBA participates in.”

Though majority of the lawyers adopted the position of the association, some others contended that the association had allowed the tussle between the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN over the suspension of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami by the National Judicial Council, NJC to creep into the bar.

Some recipients to lout directive

Some of the recipients also maintained that their allegiance was to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which licenced them to practice as lawyers in the country and not the NBA. They also argued that it was only the Supreme Court that could de-bar them and not the NBA, which is an indication that some of them were ready to flout the directive of the association.

It will be recalled that the 30 legal practitioners were on July 17, conferred with the rank of SAN by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC.

Their confirmation was sequel to an out of court settlement reached between the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and the LPPC.

The Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court who also serves as the Secretary of the LPPC, Mr Sunday Olorundahunsi, had on the day their names were unveiled, announced that they would be sworn-in on September 19.

However, the CJN who is billed to retire on Sunday, August 28, decided to abridge the date to this Friday, a move that has been greatly inveighed by the NBA which contended that the date would clash with its ongoing general conference in Port Harcourt.

The legal body further queried the urgency on the part of the CJN, even as it noted that it would not be in the interest of the celebrants to host the event within the Muslim Ramadan period.

NBA insisted that, “it is a tradition to begin the legal year of the Supreme Court of Nigeria with the swearing-in of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria”, adding that Friday would not mark the beginning of a new legal year.

Consequently, NBA vowed to boycott the ceremony, saying it would not acknowledge the rank on any of the 30 appointees that present him/herself before the CJN on Friday for the purpose of being sworn-in as a SAN.

Though the last set of SANs were sworn into office two years ago, the NBA, which is the primary umbrella-body of all practicing legal practitioners in the country, hitherto dragged both the CJN and the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, over attempts by the LPPC to sideline due process in the appointment of new SANs.

The legal body had kicked against an initial 62-man list of legal practitioners who were ab-initio pencilled down for the rank.

NBA specifically prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to void the list on the premise that it was constituted in total disregard to the provisions of section 7 of the Legal Practitioners Act.

It equally urged the court to determine among other things, “whether the defendants, particularly the LPPC, complied with the mandatory provision of paragraph 12-(1) of the Guidelines for the appointment of Legal Practitioners to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria made pursuant to section 7 of the Legal Practitioners Act, in the appointment exercise to the rank of SAN for the year 2010-2011”.

Nevertheless, at the resumed hearing of the suit on May 16, counsel to the NBA, Mr Emeka Obegolu, informed the presiding judge in the matter, Justice Gabriel Kolawole that all the parties decided to settle the matter out of court.

Following terms of settlement the parties subsequently filed at the High Court registry on May 31, the trial judge discontinued further hearing on the suit, though he adopted the said terms of settlement as the judgment of the court on the matter.