Court summons Falana over contentious comments on biased judgments
Prominent lawyer and activist Femi Falana has been ordered to appear before a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria Justice J.D. Peter over his comments on a judgment made by the court.
The Punch reports that Justice Peter ordered Falana to appear before him for saying that Nigerian courts had become “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping”.
Falana was reported to have made the comment during the opening of the Enugu branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Law Week where he was the guest speaker.
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At the event whose theme was “Corruption and the Justice Sector: Implications for the Rule of Law and Democracy”, the outspoken lawyer was also said to have attacked the NBA for condoning corruption.
He said the body’s national election had become even more expensive than a governorship election, with candidates spending close to N700m each.
Falana asked the National Judicial Council and the NBA to restore integrity to the judiciary by identifying and exposing corrupt judges and lawyers.
The Punch reports that Falana was however summoned by Justice Peter when a lawyer from his chambers had on March 28 appeared before the judge, who sits in Court 5 at the Lagos Division of the National Industrial Court to seek an application to enforce a judgment.
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The judge drew the lawyer’s attention to an online publication in which Falana had described courts as “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping” and subsequently adjourned the case till May 13 with an order that Falana appear personally in court to explain “if he obtained the judgment by purchase from the judicial supermarket and for how much”.
He stressed that Falana must appear in court to say how much he paid for the judgment which he sought to enforce.
Falana has yet to openly comment on the matter.
Legit.ng recalls Falana recently came under attack from a group of young professionals in the All Progressives Congress (APC), known as the APC Young Patriots who accused him of making unsavoury comments about the Senate's second rejection of Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A statement from them read in part: “We have watched with serious consternation how some senior lawyers and individuals led by Prof. Itse Sagay and Mr Femi Falana have been trying to ridicule the institution of the Senate and its members.
"We found this very offensive and disingenuous. We are using this medium to avert their minds to the future implications of their action and the possibility of giving vent to a fascist state."
Source: Legit.ng
