Lawyers should seek justice – Dahiru Ibrahim
Recently, the PDP National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur threatened that members of the National Assembly who joined the ‘New PDP’ would lose their seats, what is your reaction to this? From the point of view of the law governing this provision in the constitution, l believe that Bamanga Tukur is making a threat probably to […]
Recently, the PDP National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur threatened that members of the National Assembly who joined the ‘New PDP’ would lose their seats, what is your reaction to this?
From the point of view of the law governing this provision in the constitution, l believe that Bamanga Tukur is making a threat probably to get them back into the mainstream party. What the law provides is that if you change a party from the one producing you to another one, you lose your seat, but the same constitution made a provision that if it was as a result of a faction then that section does not apply. In this case the New PDP is PDP and this is why they have called his bluff; unless they leave the PDP for another party like ANPP or APC.
Judgment was recently granted in favour of your client, the Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF) founded by Turai Yar’adua against the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister and others, what is the latest on this matter?
The case was to question the legality of the action of the FCT Minister Senator Bala Mohammed, who purportedly withdrew the WAYEF’s land title. We have not received any notice of appeal from the FCT and we believe that they have accepted the judgment and WAYEF has taken possession of its land and is now utilising it for the purpose for which they were given approval. The trial judge took his time to deliver that eloquent judgment.
Law firms in Nigeria do not follow global trends where a large number of lawyers come together to form one firm, what is the problem?
It is just the trend in Nigeria for a professional to personalise the office, be it legal, accounting or engineering. The problem is not just with the legal profession. It is with all professions (architects, accountants etc) that you tend to find that it is the initial person that set up the firm that holds sway. There is no collaborative effort for many lawyers to come together under one roof. Take the major accounting and architect firms, it is the same trend. To some extent when we set up this firm what we did was to get away from that personalisation. Initially we had three firms that collapsed into one, the idea was to open our doors for others to come in.
The EFCC and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have insisted that lawyers must report transactions above N150,000 with them in the effort to fight money laundering. Is it proper for them to regulate lawyers?
It is not just any client who comes in with a brief that you notify the CBN. What the CBN is doing is in furtherance of the money laundering Act whereby people use either shop or professional companies as a way of laundering money. Yes, the EFCC could come in if you want to buy a house with cash in excess of the stipulated amount. But as a lawyer and at the end of the day my bill to yours is N5 million and you pay me, l am not under any obligation to report to either the CBN or EFCC. Cash is the key word. They do not want offices of lawyers to be used to circumvent the money laundering act because the CBN and EFCC are trying to regulate the flow of money.
Also, we have clients who have shops and in one single purchase could sell more than the stipulated amount in cash. If he pays by cheque or by other instruments which the banking system can capture, it is alright, but it is the cash that is the main thrust.
Has your firm registered?
Our registration is with the Ministry of Commerce which commercial banks have requested us to register and which we have done.
A lot of people do not even want their matter to go to court because if it goes to court it can take years. This should not be so because the maxim of the law is justice delayed is justice denied.
Would you suggest that each region should have its own Supreme Court or what is the way out?
It is to have more divisions of the Supreme Court (SC) like we have in the Court of Appeal (CA) where you have Lagos, Kaduna and so on so that they can handle appeals that arose from there. I can understand that because they say ‘supreme’ so it has to be one. The legal profession and the NBA am sure are equally worried about this long delays in getting judgments. We should come up with a way that we can start a case and you can tell that it would finish within a specified period of 6- 8 months. Take the case of Al-Mustapha, a criminal case which took almost 14 years. Out of these 14 years about 12 years were spent on preliminaries – objections and rulings. We operate the common law in Nigeria, in the UK it takes months for a case to be finished. Look at Ibori’s case, am sure if it is in Nigeria, the matter would still be at the preliminary stage.
What advice do you have for young lawyers?
The legal profession as you know is a noble profession in the sense that you are dealing with people who have their rights trampled upon or feel endangered and come to you to help them seek redress. You have to learn how to protect the interest of your client and the law has given you protection by lawyer-client privilege. So pursuit of justice is an integral part of the law. We should always have justice in mind at the end of whatever we do.