On Monday, 28th May, 2012, a bill to amend the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act came up before an Assembly of Stakeholders for Public Hearing. Held under the joint auspices of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions and the Committee’s counterpart on the Judiciary, the hearing attracted very many eminent personalities from the banking sector, captains of industry, organized labour, civil society groups, eminent lawyers and high level federal government officials.

CHIEF Emeka Ngige SAN, is one of the respected members of the Inner Bar. A member of the Body of Benchers, he is also one of the National Executive Committee of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA. In this interview, Chief Ngige who is also an assistant secretary of Body of Senior Advocates and NBA presidential aspirant spoke on President Goodluck Jonathan’s refusal to reinstate Justice Ayo Salami, the controversy surrounding venue of forthcoming NBA delegate conference, judiciary and other issues affecting the legal profession. Excerpts:

Having regard to the clear state of law therefore, the court below was in error when in the same judgment ordering the rehearing of the appeal afresh to resolve the omnibus ground of appeal between the parties by the High Court, it proceeded again to determine the merit of the dispute, which in my view, must be set aside by this court in order to give the parties and the High Court level playing ground to face the rehearing of the appeal denovo.

Please tell us where to register our property instead of writing a Will

One may recall that recently most cases being prosecuted in court by ICPC and EFCC have suffered one set back or the other and even faced outright dismissal due to the tardiness with which they were handled. For example the case against the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was thrown out because the ICPC rushed to court without obtaining the primary evidence (bank statement) needed to commence prosecution or indict him.