CCT walkout: NBA clears Saraki’s lawyers

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The Nigerian Bar Association has cleared some Senior Advocates of Nigeria of any wrongdoing in their walkout on the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja on Thursday during the hearing of the charges of false assets declaration against their client, Senator Bukola Saraki.

The three Senior Advocates of Nigeria – Saka Issau, Ahmed Raji and Mahmud Magaji – led 23 other junior lawyers out of the courtroom on Thursday in protest against a ruling of the Danladi Umar-led Code of Conduct Tribunal directing Saraki’s trial to continue despite his pending appeal with respect to the case at the Supreme Court.

NBA President, Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN), in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Saturday, said the association was satisfied with the response of the affected lawyers to the queries issued to them within one hour of the occurrence of the incident on Thursday.

He said, “I was at the airport when the news broke and within one hour, I called the lawyers. I called the General Secretary and asked him to send letters to them. The letters were sent immediately and they responded.

“We had a meeting on Thursday and by Friday we received their responses. We are satisfied with their responses and we do not see any need to proceed further on those lawyers except there is any new information that is available to us.”

Alegeh said there was no need to further investigate the case or confer with the tribunal before clearing the lawyers since the NBA had yet to receive any formal complaint from members of the tribunal.

He said the act of the lawyers could not be said to be a walkout since they withdrew their appearance for Saraki before taking their leave from the tribunal.

“We wrote to the lawyers who were alleged to have walked out. And they replied us stating clearly that they have applied to the tribunal to withdraw. Their application was granted and therefore they had to leave the court. They also said they did not leave the court with an empty bar because there were other lawyers in court.

“When a lawyer has applied to withdraw appearance from that court they have no other business to remain in that court and they are free to leave. The lawyer is free to leave the court.”

He said the tribunal should report to the NBA if the members felt that the lawyers’ conduct was improper.

He said, “We always implore all courts and tribunals to notify us of conducts of lawyers they consider to be improper. It is the duty of the tribunal if it feels such thing transpired to notify the NBA. The NBA owes a duty to the tribunal members who we have the duty to protect and to the senior advocates and to the entire bar. We won’t take side with one against the other.”

Alegeh also said he was not aware of comment by the tribunal chairman describing the conduct of the lawyers as disrespectful.

He said, “I have not been informed of that. You know that we work on empirical evidence. If the tribunal writes to us, we will forward a copy of the letter to the lawyers to respond. But I cannot on the basis of hearsay take such step.”

Meanwhile the Supreme Court has fixed November 12 for hearing of Saraki’s application for stay of proceedings of the CCT.

Source: Punch