Onnoghen: Lawyers shun NBA’s boycott directive

Lawyers on Tuesday shunned a directive of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) calling on its members to boycott courts nationwide for two days, following suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen, as Chief Judge of Nigeria.

A visit to the Industrial Court Complex in Garki, showed that two out of the four courts had their usual court proceedings, while one delivered a ruling.

NAN gathered from the court registrar of one of the courts that did not sit that it was because sitting was not slated in his court for Tuesday.

It was gathered that the judge in another court that did not sit was on vacation.

The lawyers were seen in the premises going into the registry to file processes while others were in courtrooms involving in court proceedings.

One of them, who preferred anonymity told NAN that he came to get a new date for his matter slated for today, but met his colleagues waiting for proceedings and he joined them.

Another lawyer, Mr Steve Imokhe said he was in court as a defence counsel for a matter slated for today, he said NBA should have gone round the courts to ensure compliance rather than giving a directive without monitoring it.

NAN reports that the NBA reached a resolution to boycott courts nationwide from Tuesday Jan. 29 and Wednesday Jan. 30, after its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Monday in Abuja.

The NBA President, Mr Paul Usoro, who made the announcement, said lawyers reached the agreement to drive home their displeasure over the suspension of the CJN.

Onnoghen was suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari on Jan. 25, over failure to declare his assets as required of every public servant.

The president said he acted on a motion exparte order granted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, replacing Onnoghen with Justice Tanko Mohammed as acting CJN.