Many lawyers in Abuja on Tuesday ignored Monday’s directive by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for legal practitioners to stay away from courts until the Executive reverses the suspension of Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Visits to courts in Abuja on Tuesday revealed that fully robbed lawyers, turned up in court, ready to conduct businesses for the day.
The situation was the same in the Supreme Court (located within the Three Arms Zone), through the Court of Appeal (located also in the Three Arms Zone), the Federal High Court (in Maitama) and the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Maitam.
Although most judges at the Federal High Court did not sit, with some said to be attending a seminar, Justices of the Supreme Court sat and conducted proceedings. So was the case in some High Court of the FCT visited.
Some of the lawyers spoken to said the directive by the NBA lacked the force of law. And since it was not an order of court, lawyers could choose to abide by it or disregard it where their client’s interest is at stake.
They argue that since the issue of the suspension of the CJN was already in court, the NBA and all other interested parties should allow the court reach a decision one way or the other.