Lawyer Sues FG, AGF over SAN Privileges in Court
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- Category: Law, Crime & Judiciary
- Published on Tuesday, 18 January 2011 09:16
- Written by ThisDay
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A Lagos-based lawyer, Udoka Ejilibe, has dragged the Federal Government and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice before a Federal High Court in Lagos, over privileges enjoyed by Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and lawyers from the offices of the federal and state Attorney General.
He is also praying for an order nullifying sections 5, 6, 8 (4) of the legal Practitioners Act 1962 as amended and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Privileges and Functions) rules because he has a right to exercise his right of personal liberty by freely choosing where to sit in the Bar in the courtroom including the front row seats in the Bar in the court room in the exercise of his professional calling as a lawyer.
The lawyer wants the court to determine whether in view of section 35(1) of the 1999 Constitution, they can promulgate laws or make rules as contained in sections 6 and 8(4) of the Legal Practitioners Act 1962 as amended and the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Privileges and Functions) rules prohibiting him and other lawyers who are not SANs from sitting on the front row of seats in the bar of the courtrooms in Nigeria in the practice of law profession, and thereby abridging his right to personal liberty guaranteed by the constitution.
He also wants the court to determine whether in view of sections 17 (1), (2) (a) and 42 of the 1999 constitution, the defendants can promulgate laws or make rules as contained in sections 6 and 8(4) of the Legal Practitioners Act 1962 as amended and the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Privileges and Functions) rules prohibiting him and other lawyers who are not SANs from sitting on the front row of seats in the bar of the courtrooms in Nigeria in the practice of law profession as a lawyer and thereby abrogating his right to equal protection of the law and freedom from discrimination guaranteed by the constitution.
The legal practitioner also wants the court to determine whether the laws as promulgated in sections 5 (1)(2), 6, 8 (4) and the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Privileges and Functions) rules regarding separate sittings in the Bar of the courtrooms in Nigeria for members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to which he belongs is not a state sanctioned policy on segregation and discriminatory in view of sections 42, 17 (1) (2) of the 1999 constitution.
He also wants the court to decide whether the laws as promulgated in sections 6, 8 (4) and the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Privileges and Functions) rules permitting what he termed a class of members of the NBA to call their cases out of turn, is not to his detriment and disadvantage in the law practice, and a violation of his right to equal protection of law in view of sections 42, 17 (1) (2) of the 1999 constitution.
Ejilibe wants to know whether the defendants in the suit have power to enact laws as contained in section 5 of the Legal Practitioners Act 1962 as amended and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (Privileges and Functions) rules conferring honors and other dignities on members of a private professional body like the NBA when such powers is not derived from any item listed in either the exclusive legislative or concurrent legislative lists of the 1999 constitution.
The Lagos based lawyer also wants a declaration of the court that the laws prohibiting him from sitting on the front row of seats in the Bar in all court rooms in Nigeria in the exercise of his professional calling as a lawyer on the ground that he is not a SAN is a violation of his right to equal protection of the law guaranteed by sections 17 (1) (2) and 42 of the 1999 constitution and Article 3 of the African Charter on human and people’s rights and is therefore illegal, unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
