If this attack is not checkmate by those in authorities, lawyers and policemen may soon be on one another throats. I know for sure that the police cannot try this kind of thing with the soldiers and not live to regret it. If the news is not that a police was invited by a boss to slap a junior lawyer, the news will be that police dragged some lawyers before a Magistrate for arraignment on false allegation that the lawyers obstructed the police in the cause of their duties. There are stories of lawyers who suffered attacks in the hands of police in the cause of discharging their duties to clients. These kinds of news are not pleasant to the hearing. The earlier the NBA leadership takes a bold step to checkmate these incessant attacks, the better for the profession. If the police are audacious to unjustly attack lawyers anyhow and go away with that, then what will be the fate of people who are not lawyers? The incidents of police attacks are abound. While we are not trying to relate those incidents here since they are already in the public domain, our intention is to advise the NBA leadership to engage the Police Authority with the view to checkmate the incessant attacks. It needs to be pointed out that most times the police attacks are bore out of jealousy and hatred for the lawyers on the one hand and the “attitude of don’t spoil our business” often display by some policemen especially those of lower ranking. Majority of the high ranking officers are always very diplomatic in their relation with lawyers. When people are arrested and put in the police custody, some policemen are not usually comfortable when lawyers come in. It is easier for them to make money from the suspects or their relatives when lawyers are not involved. Policemen are comfortable dealing with the relatives of the suspects than their lawyers as the former will easily play ball with them. Despite the inscription you see in the police station that BAIL IS FREE, suspects hardly leave their custody without parting with something. Any suspect or whose lawyer refuses to play ball may eventually find himself in court for arraignment .That is to say “if you can settle for police bail, you will settle for the court bail, it is just as you like it”. We have had the course in the past to call on the Head of the Police Force to call his men and women who are misbehaving to order, when Mr. Ogbonayya Onovo came in as IGP many years back, I wrote, and still want the present IGP to take note of this that: “The Nigeria Police Force has been on trial for a very long time in the sense that it has created more problems for itself than it can solve. This is not to say that the Nigeria Police have not done well over the time, the force has indeed done well in one way or the other but this notwithstanding the fact still remains that the force is seriously in dare need of a revolution. This is so because the Nigeria Police Force seems to be breeding more black sheep than the real officers and men of integrity. One of the tasks before Mr. Onovo as the IGP must be to device a way of identifying the black sheep among his officers and men for the appropriate sanction or if necessary be flushed out of the system . More damage has been done to the police and the nation by the bad breeds in the police force by their various acts of transgression which ultimately are attributed to the Nigeria Police Force. “The incident that led to the face-off between the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin Branch and the embattled Chief Judge of Kwara State, Justice Raliat Elelu Habeeb which led to her removal by the Governor Bukola Saraki of the state has been attributed to the Nigeria Police. Although a Federal High Court has ordered that the Chief Judge be reinstated upon her challenge of the removal. While a Chief Magistrate in Lagos state was said to have been physically attacked by some men of the Nigeria police for grant bail to an accused person in the exercised of his judicial duties, Mr. Mike Igbokwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria has gotten a court order against the police to be paid heavily for an attack against his person. These are just the tips of the ice barge.” As the saying goes ,if some policemen continue to behave like a leopard that will never change its spot, I am of view that one of the ways to checkmate the incessant attacks is to sue the policemen involve in such act and as well as join the police authority .By the time the judgment is gotten against them and their entitlements with the police are used by the police authority to defray the judgment debt ,I believe many of them will think twice before taking law into their hands to perpetrate any act of transgression against any individual whether lawyer or not .Sanity must be made to return to the police system and IGP must be made to read the riot act to his people. In case of ACB Vs. Okonkwo (1997) 1 NWLR (Pt. 480) , Hon. Justice Niki Tobi as he was strongly observed that: “I know of no law which authorizes the police to arrest a mother for an offence committed or purportedly committed by her son. Criminal responsibility is personal and cannot be transferred. While am aware of cases of vicarious liability in criminal law, the instant case is certainly not one. A police officer who arrest “A” for the offence committed by “B” should realize that he has acted against the law, such police officer should be in addition to liability in civil action be punished by the police authority. As a matter of fact, it bothers us so much for the police operating the law of arrest, after three decades of Nigeria’s independence to arrest and detain innocent citizens of this country for offence committed by their relations. That is a most uncivilized conduct and one that any person with a democratic mind should thoroughly detest and condemn. I detest and condemn the uncouth practice” It is equally important to advise lawyers and non lawyers to be diplomatic rather than being arrogant when dealing with the policemen as there are instances where the act of arrogance have resulted into people having problems with the police. Lawyers that are not getting the desired co-operation from the policemen assigned to handle the cases of their clients for investigations should request to see the superior officers rather than engaging the Investigating Police Officers (IPOs) in unnecessary and fruitless arguments. I am also of the view that the NBA leadership both at the national and branch level should reactivate and empower their various Human Rights Committees to take up the cases of lawyers who are justly attacked or maltreated by the police. FAREWELL TO HON. JUSTICE IDRIS LEGBO KUTIGI On 20th October 2018, Hon. Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, (GCON), the 11th Chief Justice of Nigeria took his exit from this world. His Lordship died in a London hospital at the age 79 about 9 years after he retired as the Head of the Apex court in Nigeria. The death of this great jurist has justified the position of the Holy Quran that “every soul shall have a taste of death” as well as that of the Holy Bible that “It is ordained for man once to die and then judgment”. The great lesson from this is that we should all be conscious of death and that it can come anytime. To the members of the legal profession, Justice Kutigi did not need much introduction. Before he was elevated to the High Court of Niger State as a Judge, he had earlier served as the Attorney General & Commissioner for Justice of that state. He was elevated from the Court of Appeal in 1992 to the Supreme Court as a Justice of that court and he eventually retired as the Chief Justice Nigeria in 2009. During his reign as CJN, the appointment to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) generated a lot of controversies among lawyers which made him to suspend the appointment that year. After his retirement, he was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to chair the National Conference put in place by that regime. Justice Kutigi during his judicial service to the nation delivered several landmark judgments through which he has immortalized himself in our law and jurisprudence. He will long be remembered among the jurists who contributed immensely to the development of law in Nigeria. One of his remarkable pronouncements contained in the LAW PRACTICE KIT is produced below. We condole with the family of the late jurist as well as the legal profession in entity. May Allah accept him and bless his soul. ADIEU, HON. JUSTICE IDRIS LEGBO KUTIGI! REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON FAILURE TO FOLLOW SUPREME COURT DECISION “I however wish to stress the point that the case of Onuoha Vs. Okafor & Ors. (1983) 14 NSCC 494, was rightly applied to the facts of this case by the Court of Appeal. It is unfortunate that although that case was cited to the trial judge, he deliberately and consciously refused to apply it, because he thought that the Supreme Court was wrong in its decision in that case. If the Supreme Court was wrong, he was also wrong not to have followed the age long established doctrine of stare decisis, otherwise known as judicial precedent. His action has been variously described as “gross insubordination”, “judicial rascality”, “reckless”, “judicial impertinence” amongst others. I think he richly deserved the description. I have nothing more to add.” Per KUTIGI, JSC (as he then was) in Dalhatu Vs. Turaki (2003) FWLR (Pt. 174) Pg. 263 Paras B – D THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On when evidence of an accused is contrary to statement given to the police “It is settled that when an accused person makes a statement to police and in his evidence in court gives something contrary to it, such testimony is usually treated as unreliable and is therefore ignored. This principle applies to any other witness in a criminal trial.” See Oladejo Vs. State (1987) 3 NWLR (Pt. 6) 364, 427; Onubogu Vs. The State (1974) 9 SC 1; Enitan Vs. State (1986) 3 NWLR (Pt. 3) Pg. 604 ;NATHANIEL NBENU & ORS Vs. THE STATE (1988) SC Pt. III at Pg. 82, Lines 14-21 For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735 or email:rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com. Your library is incomplete without these books. 28th October 2018]]>
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