*Threaten LPDC Petition

Former 1st Vice President and SPIDEL leader, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins, and former Chairman of SPIDEL Public Interest Litigation Committee and former National Publicity Secretary and National Welfare Secretary of the NBA, Kunle Edun, SAN, have threatened to petition Police Prosecutor Rimamsomte Ezekiel to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) for issuing false public statements about a matter pending before the Federal High Court, Abuja.

They allege that Ezekiel’s actions breach the extant provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct and bring the legal profession into disrepute.

During an interview on Channels Television, Mr. Rimamsomte Ezekiel informed Nigerians that the malnourished and dehumanized children charged before the Federal High Court Abuja for treason are adults, fathers, and university graduates. However, clear video and physical evidence show that the defendants are minors, many of them likely under the age of 12. The charge sheet filed by the prosecutors also contradicted Ezekiel’s public statement that no minor was charged to court.

The past National Officers of the NBA and Rule of Law advocates stated that the Rules of Professional Conduct require lawyers to be honest and sincere in the exercise of their professional duties and not to be persecutors. The Rules forbid lawyers from making false statements that compromise the due administration of justice. Aikpokpo-Martins and Edun demand that Ezekiel retract the false statements he made during the Channels Television interview, failure of which will result in a petition to the LPDC for professional misconduct.

They admonished lawyers in the Police, State Security Service, the military, and other para-military organizations that their first loyalty is to law and justice, not their paymasters. The Rules of Professional Conduct should always guide them, as they are still bound by its provisions and liable to be sanctioned for violations, regardless of their positions as police officers.

Recently, the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, admonished lawyers to refrain from granting interviews on matters pending before the courts. Ezekiel disregarded this warning by not only commenting on live issues in court but also making false claims, effectively conducting a media trial of the court proceedings.

The past NBA National Officers commended the action of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who issued a statement directing the Police to hand over the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution immediately for review.

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