AGF, NBA president charge prosecutors on corruption fight

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) have called on law officers to fight against corruption.

The duo made the call at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Annual General Conference (AGC) for Law Officers, organised by Law Officers Association of Nigeria (LOAN) in Abuja.

LOAN is the umbrella body of government lawyers who work in various ministries, departments and agencies. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Reengineering the Law Officers Sector for Effective Administration of Justice in Nigeria’.

In his address, Malami said the conference was conceptualized to bring together law officers from the 36 states’ ministries of justice, legal experts and major stakeholders interested in the furtherance of the fundamental commitment of LOAN towards capacity building of members.

On his part, the NBA president mentioned the need for the Bar to support better emoluments for LOAN members particularly now that so much was expected from them in the fight against corruption.

President of LOAN, Solomon Usifoh Ibhadon, in his speech requested the AGF to assist members in coming up with a reviewed salary structure.

“Above all , each attorney-general as the chief law officer of the state has its a duty to properly advise government with legal audacity, boldness and lead by example by appearing before court in prosecution and defence of cases in which the laws of the state are called to question rather than farming out these cases to few private legal practitioners at huge cost to government,” he said.

LOAN 1st vice president, Yusuf Abdullahi Abdulkadir urged the states that are yet to comply with the 1994 circular on harmonization to do so in order to block all leakages of corruption in service.