THE Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) appears to have lost the grip on its members to be sworn in as Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) today
as they reportedly met with the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu on Wednesday to assure him that they would be present at the ceremony.
The association’s leadership, led by Joseph Daudu SAN, had directed its members to shun the ceremony in protest of its marginalisation on the National Judicial Council (NJC), where the constitution bars lawyers on the council from participating in the proceedings of sanctioning jurists though they could participate in the process of appointing them.
A top source within the system disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune that 28 out of the 30 newly-appointed silks reportedly met with the retiring CJN to assure him that they were already in Abuja preparatory to the ceremony today.
They were said to have held a meeting on Wednesday morning in Abuja where they took a decision to present themselves for the swearing-in ceremony today, following their reported conviction that the Bench did not require the permission of the Bar to perform its statutory functions.
They also reportedly concluded that the award of the SAN title was a privilege which the Bar could not exercise any control over once the appointments are made.
After the meeting, they were said to have moved to the apex court where they were said to have met with a senior administrative officer to confirm if the event would still hold.
When the response of the officer was reportedly unclear to them, they were said to have moved en masse to the office of the CJN where they reportedly told him that they were ready for the award ceremony if the apex court was ready to go ahead with the event, with Katsina-Alu said to have told them that nothing would stop the event.
The Supreme Court had through its media department issued a statement that nothing would stop what would be Katsina-Alu’s last official function in office.
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