Justice J.D. Peter, a judge of the National Industrial Court of
Nigeria,has ordered activist lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), to appear
before him over comments credited to him.
Falana was reported to have said that Nigerian courts
had become “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping” during
the opening of the Enugu branch of the Nigerian Bar Association Law
Week.
The Lagos lawyer was the guest speaker at the event. The theme of the
event was Corruption and the Justice Sector: Implications for the Rule
of Law and Democracy.
The lawyer was also said to have attacked the NBA for condoning
corruption, saying that the body’s national election had become even
more expensive than a governorship election, with each candidate
spending as much as N700m during the association’s presidential poll.
Falana asked the National Judicial Council and the NBA to restore
integrity to the judiciary by identifying and exposing corrupt judges
and lawyers.
However, a lawyer from Falana’s chambers had on March 28 appeared before
Justice Peter, who sits in Court 5 at the Lagos Division of the
National Industrial Court.
The lawyer appeared in the court regarding a case, marked
NICN/LA/601/2012 involving Chief Ebenezer Ayodele Obadimu vs G. CAPPA
Plc.
Falana’s chambers is representing the judgment-creditor in the case and
had then taken an application seeking to enforce the judgment through a
garnishee procedure before Justice Peter.
However, before the lawyer from Falana’s chambers could make his
submissions, the judge drew the counsel’s attention to an online
publication in which Falana had described courts as “supermarkets where
only the rich do their shopping”.
The judge subsequently adjourned the case for Falana to appear
personally in court to explain “if he obtained the judgment by purchase
from the judicial supermarket and for how much”.
He adjourned the case till May 13, stressing that Falana must appear in
court to say how much he paid for the judgment which he sought to
enforce.
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