The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an independent panel of inquiry to unmask those responsible for the recent invasion of the Abuja home of Honourable Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili.
Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos on Friday, the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata called on the executive arm of government to also sanction security agents who raided the house of the second most senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Mr. Akpata also reiterated that lawyers in the country must resist any discordant tunes to protect the sanctity of legal profession and the judiciary arm of government.
In a no-holds bar manner, Akpata noted that it is not enough to hear that some of the officers involved have been arrested, he demanded that the veil of secrecy behind those who directed the said officers are hiding must be torn to shreds for them all to also be brought to justice.
He urged President Buhari, “There should be no sacred cows. The position of the NBA is that public officers must be made to account for whatever they do with their entrusted powers and where there is any appearance of executive lawlessness the NBA will respond with dispatch to demand for justice.
“It is with equal determination that the NBA will also call out and discipline any of our members who is found to have been part of this despicable attempt to ridicule the Judiciary.”
In the meantime, the association is set to exhaust all legal means hence it announced the Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law, NBA-SPIDEL, Dr. Monday Ubani as private investigator to employ all legal means to bring those who desecrated the ‘temple’ of justice to face the wrath of law.
Recalling with nostalgia the Gestapo-like invasion of the residences of some Justices of the Supreme Court and other superior court justices and judges by the security agents of the executive arm of government, Akpata noted, “Over four years later, the
rationale for that raid has never been fully explained or indeed justified.
“It is for this reason that I have called out the discordant voices emanating from groups within the Association, in respect of the same issue. Apart from the Annual General Meeting of the NBA which exercises the supreme authority of the Association, the NBA National Executive Council is the highest decision-making body in the Association and when the NBA has clearly articulated a position on any matter, especially a serious one such as the invasion of the premises of a Supreme Court Justice, other groups within the Association, whether they be a body of senior or junior advocates, must reign themselves in and should refrain from muddying the waters by embarking on needless road-shows and issuing statements that only serve to portray our Association, and indeed our approach to the issue at hand, as uncoordinated and ultimately ineffective.”
