CJN bid to purge the judiciary of corruption Among Lawyers

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IN ABUJA - CJN Decries Indiscipline is a renewed bid to purge the judiciary of corruption, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, has directed the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, to hand stiffer sanction to any legal practitioner found culpable in any act of judicial impropriety.

Handing the order to the Chairman of the LPDC and immediate past National President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr Joseph Daudu, while receiving copies of “Directions and Rulings of the LPDC of the Body of Benchers from January to May 2013”, at the Supreme Court yesterday, the CJN, decried what she described as high rate of in-discipline among legal practitioners in the country, insisting that most of them are corrupt.

The CJN maintained that for the on-going judiciary reform to meet the desired result, lawyers in the country must conduct their affairs within the confine of the ethics of legal profession.

Commending the LPDC chairman, Daudu, for collaborating with the National Judicial Council, NJC, towards not only ferreting out corrupt Judges, but equally identify lawyers fanning the embers of bribery and corruption within the Justice sector.

The CJN said there were many petitions involving some lawyers that came to her office, she asked the LPDC to forthwith investigate the allegations which she said were thought provoking and mind bungling, stressing that “the present Bar is highly infested with questionable characters.”

She said notwithstanding the number of petitions the LPDC has treated within the short time it came on board, the committee members need to double their efforts with a view to curbing the number of lawyers engaging in unwholesome judicial practices.

She said: “I thank you for presenting this book to me today. For quite sometimes, I have been seeing the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee proceedings on the television networks, but I have never observed the zeal and result with which you are carrying out this job now.

‘’It seems LPDC is assiduously competing with the NJC, as the two bodies are now running side by side to cleanse the judiciary.

‘’I believe that, for the judiciary to be reformed, lawyers must be disciplined. With the number of reports we are now receiving, you just have to work harder. Some petitions came to me which I sent to you, and some them were quite thought provoking.

“This is a very nice document which would be useful to many lawyers and judges, including those of us at the Supreme Court since appeals against your decisions will lie at the apex court.”

“You have to bear with the pressure and hazards of the job since you are sitting over the judgement of your colleagues.”

While presenting copies of the book, Daudu revealed that as at the time of their appointment, there were 51 pending cases out of which he said they treated 42, with only nine petitions still pending.