The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN has stated 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 – have exposed the entire legal profession in Nigeria to public ridicule and opprobrium. The damage is one that would take the legal profession a long time to recover from. It is unfortunate and was totally uncalled for."

In a statement issued this morning, Mr. Maikyau said that "Without prejudice to the subsisting actions before both the Federal High Court and the Kano State High Court, it is my considered view that there is urgent need to scrutinize the professional conducts of both Counsel and the Judges involved in these matters. This is to enable the relevant bodies or institutions determine their culpability or, otherwise, from an ethical and professional standpoint."

The NBA President has, therefore, called on "the respective heads of the Courts of the Judges concerned, to take immediate steps to look into their conducts with the view to finding any possible abuse of their judicial offices and file a report with the National Judicial Council for necessary action. 

As regards the lawyers involved, the NBA President said that the NBA "... will investigate the conducts of the counsel involved in these cases and shall not hesitate to commence disciplinary action against them before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, should there be any finding of alleged professional misconduct against them. The Chairman of the NBA Ethics and Disciplinary Committee has accordingly been directed to invite these counsel for preliminary investigations."

Please find attached for your reference the statement of the NBA President.

Thank you, and do have a good day.

Akorede Habeeb Lawal 

National Publicity Secretary, NBA