By Jimitota Onoyume

PORT HARCOURT—THE Nigerian Bar Association,  NBA, has reaffirmed its zero tolerance to corruption saying that the Federal Government must ensure that the anti-graft war was fought within the ambit of the law.

President of the NBA,  Mr Augustine Alegeh, SAN, who spoke, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the opening of the annual conference of the body, said that if the fight against corruption was outside the ambit of  the law, such action amounted  to corruption itself.

He said that it was unfortunate that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had a record of 136 inconclusive elections so far, stressing that this was unfortunate.

“We want to tell INEC that elections can be easily conducted as the NBA has done, so that we don’t have 136 inconclusive elections in the country in two years,” he said.

He said that the NBA will not tolerate a situation  where what was unlawfully acquired by one man was recovered and handed over to another, adding that the body will continue to support the fight against corruption within the law.

“We restate our commitment to zero tolerance to corruption as lawyers.  We recognise that our country is stagnated by corruption.  The war against corruption must be fought within the ambits of the law.  Any attempt to fight corruption through other means is corruption itself.  The NBA will join the fight against corruption within the ambits of the law. If the fight against corruption is to take what was unlawfully acquired by one man and give it to another, count us out,” he warned.

He frowned at the conflicting court judgments, in the country, adding that the National Judicial Council, NJC, and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, should take urgent steps to put an end to it, describing same as an embarrassment to lawyers in the country.

On his part, Rivers State governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike,  called on the NBA to rise in defence of democracy in the country.

The governor  recalled that the NBA in the past was at the forefront of struggle to consolidate the nation’s nascent democracy.

He said the NBA should not be silenct in the face of threats to the nation’s democracy.