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Law week illegal, NBA factional chairman insists Mahmoud, Ekweremadu risk contempt of court

By Bridget Chiedu Onochie, Abuja
04 June 2018   |   3:52 am
Factional Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Abuja Branch, Ezenwa Anumnu, has said the 2018 Law Week scheduled to begin today was illegal.The event will be chaired by the National President of the body, A.B Mahmoud (SAN), while Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is billed to deliver the keynote address.  

Ezenwa Anumnu

Factional Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Abuja Branch, Ezenwa Anumnu, has said the 2018 Law Week scheduled to begin today was illegal.The event will be chaired by the National President of the body, A.B Mahmoud (SAN), while Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is billed to deliver the keynote address.  

But in a statement yesterday in Abuja, Anumnu cautioned that Mahmoud and Ekweremadu risk contempt of court if they choose to attend the event against a subsisting court order. Anumnu said in spite of the court order restraining the Caretaker Committee constituted by NBA’s National Executive Committee (NEC) at its meeting in Aba, Abia State in 2017, following the leadership tussle at the branch, its national leadership has continued to treat the court order with contempt.  

He alleged that the committee headed by one Princess Frank Chukwuani, a staff of the Ministry of Justice, has been operating in disobedience to subsisting court order.He expressed worries that Mahmoud and other major stakeholders in the temple of justice were disparaging, disrespecting and denigrating the orders of a court of competent jurisdiction by disobeying a valid ruling.  

“One wonders why Mahmoud, a major beneficiary of the rule of law, having been ousted as NBA President by the subsisting judgment of Justice J. Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on April 2017, should disobey a court order.  

“It is unfortunate that this kind of thing is coming from the national leadership of the NBA, who should lead the way in ensuring that justice is always done. Lawyers should serve as examples to the larger society when it comes to obeying court orders and rule of law in the country.  

“If the Leadership of the NBA is selecting which court order to obey and which one to disregard, disparage and disobey; then the nation’s judicial system is in trouble.“And by using underhand tactics to foist helplessness on our judicial processes, they are simply setting a bad precedent and saying goodbye to the observance of the rule of law and freedom in our society,” he stated.
 
The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, before Justice U. P. Kekemeke, in suit No: FCT/HC/CV/277/16 had granted the interlocutory reliefs sought by Anumnu (plaintiff) against Incorporated Trustees of the NBA (defendant).  

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