The Nigerian Bar Association NBA has called for punitive actions against lawyers and Judges involved in the issuance of conflicting orders in the Kano Emirate legal tussle.
The umbrella body of lawyers in the country opined that the actions of lawyers and judges have brought utter disgrace and shame to the profession and have exposed the entire legal profession in Nigeria to public ridicule and opprobrium.
In a statement by its President Yakubu Maikyau SAN on Wednesday in Abuja, the NBA vowed to drag any lawyer found culpable in the matter before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee LPDC for deserved appropriate sanctions.
The NBA President called on the Chief Judges of the Federal High Court and his counterpart in the High Court of Kano State to identify the judicial officers involved and drag them before the National Judicial Council NJC for disciplinary action.
The statement read in part “I have keenly followed the developments on the recent events concerning the stool of the Emir of Kano.
According to the statement, without any equivocation, that the conducts of counsel and the Courts in the handling of the proceedings which culminated in the orders issued by the Federal High Court, the Kano State High Court and again the Federal High Court, in circus, have brought utter disgrace and shame to the profession adding that, it has exposed the entire legal profession in Nigeria to public ridicule and opprobrium.
NBA stated that the damage is one that would take the legal profession a long time to recover from adding that, it is unfortunate and was totally uncalled for.
It stressed further that for a country whose legal resources and expertise have for several decades been exported and positively impacted not only the African continent but the world at large, it is completely unacceptable that the processes of the courts would be deployed in the manner that had been witnessed in the last couple of days, on a subject matter that is as clear as chieftaincy dispute.
The NBA added that the respect in which the legal profession in any country is held, is the best indicator of the freedom enjoyed by that country noting that, all erring members of the profession must be brought to book to regain and enhance the respect of the legal profession.