NBA urged to withdraw query issued to lawyer prosecuting Onnoghen

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has asked the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to withdraw a query issued to Mr. Aliyu Umar, the prosecution counsel of the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), for taking the brief.

The MURIC director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, said Monday in a statement NBA’s action was reactionary, distasteful and unpatriotic.

The prosecution counsel, Mr. Aliyu Umar, has however reportedly told the NBA that he would not respond to the query until Onnoghen’s case has been determined by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

“We are bewildered by NBA’s latest action. They are determined to make it impossible for the suspended CJN to be prosecuted. In other words, NBA is telling Nigerians that the man is above the law. This is contrary to the principles of justice, fairness and equality before the law which lawyers have been pushing down our throats for ages.

“How has accepting a brief become crime? NBA’s action is an indisputable disservice to the rule of law. It is repulsive to the law of natural justice. This action has a very strong potential of breaking NBA along the North-South dichotomy,” Akintola said.

The organisation demanded that the NBA withdraws its query from the prosecution counsel in order to save its good name as it contravenes the principle of natural justice.