Conflicting Court Orders: Seven lawyers to face disciplinary panel – NBA

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and six other lawyers have been indicted by an investigative panel of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over their roles in a series of conflicting ex-parte court orders issued by some judges in political cases last year.

This comes about five weeks after the National Judicial Council (NJC) sanctioned three judges for issuing the controversial orders.

The President of the NBA, Olumide Apata, disclosed this on Monday at a press briefing to herald the Justice Sector Summit 2022 in Abuja.

He, however, refused to reveal the names of the indicted lawyers.

Last December, the National Executive Council of the association had recommended that all the lawyers involved in the cases that led to conflicting ex parte orders by different High Courts be sanctioned by the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).

“Petitions are being drafted against seven lawyers including a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) concerning the conflicting court orders that were issued last year,” the NBA President told journalists on Monday.

“They will face the LPDC for their various roles over the issue,” Mr Apata added without mentioning the names of the indicted legal practitioners.

The NBA President explained that the Justice Sector Summit, billed for Tuesday in Abuja, would examine issues of appointment of judges, funding and delay in adjudication of cases.

Backstory

The NBA had expressed concerns over the spate of contradictory court orders across the country.

“The recurring contradictory decisions by our courts, based on apparently indiscriminate grant of orders and counter-orders, in a way, evokes memories of those eerie and unwanted dark days,” Mr Akpata had lamented last August.

He added: “These developments in our courts are antithetical to the actualisation of the just society and independent judiciary that we all aspire to.”

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, had summoned the Chief Judges of six states over the wave of conflicting orders issued from their courts.

As a result, Mr Muhammad who is the chairperson of the National Judicial Council (NJC), a statutory body concerned with the appointment and disciplining of judges, punished three judges who issued conflicting orders in the leadership crisis that dogged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last year.

Okogbule Gbasam of the High Court of Rivers State, Nusirat Umar of the High Court of Kebbi State and Edem Kooffreh of the High Court of Cross River State, were barred by the NJC from elevation to either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court.

While Mr Gbasam and Ms Umar were blocked from promotion to the higher bench for two years, Mr Kooffreh’s sanction carries five years.

It would be recalled that in one week, three courts in different states also issued counter-orders with respect to the office of the national chairman of the PDP.

On August 24, the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt restrained Uche Secondus from parading himself as PDP national chairman.

However, in another twist, the Kebbi State High Court in Birnin-Kebbi restored Mr Secondus’ mandate as the national chairman of the opposition PDP on August 27.

A day after Mr Secondus’ reinstatement, another the High Court in Calabar, Cross River State, issued an interim order restraining him from resuming office as PDP chairman.

This development compelled the CJN to grill the Chief Judges of six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), last September.

Mr Muhammad had warned the judges to immediately stop “the nonsense”, threatening that three of the judges who issued the controversial order would be made scapegoats.