Human rights lawyers, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and Jiti Ogunye, on Thursday led lawyers under the aegis of Association of Democratic Lawyers to the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Ikoyi to meet with the officials of the anti-graft body.
The lawyers, including, Mohammed, the late Gani Fawehinmi’s son, were received by the EFCC Acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.
Falana, who spoke on behalf of the lawyers, assured the EFCC of their support, saying the officials of the agency should not to succumb to intimidation.
The Lagos lawyer said he and his colleagues were embarrassed following the allegations that some senior lawyers had colluded with some judges to pervert the course of justice.
Falana said, “We are here to assure the EFCC of our unflinching support and solidarity as the EFCC is prepared to fight graft without a trace of selectivity.
“We also want to urge you to beware in order not to fall into the fallacy of generalisation. There are bad lawyers and judges, but there are also good ones.
“Name and shame criminal-minded judges and lawyers. The majority of members of the legal profession are prepared to work with the EFCC to ensure that corruption is fought.
“There should be respect for lawyers doing their professional duties. No lawyer should be harassed for doing his professional duty. But any lawyer found to have aided and abetted corruption should be dealt with in accordance with the laws. No one is above the law.
“We are embarrassed by a few of our privileged colleagues who bribe judges, talk to them behind closed doors to pervert justice.”
Ogunye called on the Nigeria Bar Association to do some soul-searching on the recent developments in the judiciary.
He said, “One is really amazed that the most garlanded and decorated section of the Bar are playing this kind of role. Clearly, it is very embarrassing because under the Legal Practitioners’ Act, there is a process for disciplining lawyers for ethical infraction.”
According to Ogunye, lawyers do not have any immunity against prosecution if they are found wanting, stressing that senior advocates should have been more interested in seeing Rickey Tarfa’s case being concluded rather than standing in solidarity with him.
He added, “The point is that, in this jurisdiction, in Nigeria, as well as in other jurisdiction, lawyers are not above the law; judges are not above the law. In other jurisdiction, you see lawyers and judges being sent to prison for criminal offences. So, in Nigeria, if a lawyer has a brush with the law and he’s being held to account, what any serious body of lawyers should do is to encourage that process to go to conclusion.
“…The point, I am making is that lawyers have no professional immunity to prosecution. So, if lawyers violate the law, charge them to court, indeed in vindication of the principle of equality of all before the law. If the EFCC officials, during the course of their work, violate the law, charge them to court. If judges infract the law, charge them to court, in vindication of the principle of equality before the law.
“We have to do a lot of professional soul-searching. Are the things we do as lawyers the things we ought to be doing? Are these not the things that would have earned us not only disqualification but prosecution if we were to be in other climes? Are these things in accordance with the professed nobility of our profession? These are the questions we should ask.”
Magu commended the lawyers for their support.
“This an overwhelming show of support,” he said.
The EFCC boss lamented some of the most brilliant individuals in the country were the ones trying to frustrate the war against corruption.
Magu said he was ready to die during the course of fighting corruption.
He said, “We know that corruption is fighting back and we are prepared to fight them, it is a fight to the finish.”
Culled from The PUNCH
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