Onnoghen: Mixed responses trail NBA directives on courts’ boycott

Mixed responses have trailed the directive of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for lawyers in the country to boycott court sittings for two days.

The NBA rose from its emergency meeting on Monday with a decision to boycott the courts nationwide for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) following the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Samuel Onnoghen.

The NBA said the warning strike was to press for the reversal of Buhari’s decision to appoint Justice Tanko Mohammed as Acting CJN on Friday.

At the FCT High Court in Gudu on Tuesday, our reporter observed that one of the two courts in the division, presided over by Justice Modupe Osho-Adebiyi, sat for the day’s proceedings with at least 10 lawyers present in the court.

The second court in the division, however, did not sit for proceedings even though some of the lawyers that had their cases listed came to court and had to pick new dates for their cases.

One of the lawyers told our reporter that the judge, Justice A. Bello Mohammed had proceeded on vacation. The judge was one of the judges that stayed back as vacation judges during the Christmas break of the judiciary.

At the Jabi division of the court, our reporter observed that four out of seven courts in the division sat for proceedings. They are Court 6, 11, 14 and 35 presided over by Justices Adebukola Banjoko, Mairo Nasir, Danlami Senchi and Babangida Hassan respectively.

Justice Senchi however, told the lawyers in the court that he only came to the court room out of respect for them. He said he had been given leave to travel and as such he was not expected to sit for the day’s proceedings.

One of the lawyers in the court told the judge that he only came to court because he didn’t know what the court will pronounce on his case if he had stayed back.

Another lawyer, who spoke in confidence, said she felt it would be an act of irresponsibility on her part if she did not come to court but other lawyers came and the court decided to go ahead with the day’s proceedings.