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| Femi Falana |
A judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice
J.D. Peter, has ordered activist lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), to appear
before him over comments credited to him.
Falana was reported to have said that Nigerian courts had
become “supermarkets where only the rich
do their shopping” during the opening of the Enugu branch of the Nigerian Bar
Association Law Week.
The Lagos lawyer was the guest speaker at the event. The
theme of the event was Corruption and the Justice Sector: Implications for the
Rule of Law and Democracy.
The lawyer was also said to have attacked the NBA for condoning corruption, saying that the
body’s national election had become even
more expensive than a governorship
election, with each candidate spending as much as N700m during
the association’s presidential poll.
Falana asked the
National Judicial Council and the NBA to
restore integrity to the judiciary by identifying and exposing
corrupt judges and lawyers.
However, a lawyer from Falana’s chambers had on March 28
appeared before Justice Peter, who sits in Court 5 at the Lagos Division of the
National Industrial Court.
The lawyer appeared
in the court regarding a case, marked NICN/LA/601/2012 involving Chief
Ebenezer Ayodele Obadimu vs G. CAPPA Plc.
Falana’s chambers is representing the judgment-creditor in
the case and had then taken an application seeking to enforce the judgment
through a garnishee procedure before Justice Peter.
However, before the lawyer from Falana’s chambers could make
his submissions, the judge drew the counsel’s attention to an online
publication in which Falana had described courts as “supermarkets where only
the rich do their shopping”.
The judge subsequently adjourned the case for Falana to
appear personally in court to explain “if he obtained the judgment by purchase
from the judicial supermarket and for how much”.
He adjourned the case till May 13, stressing that Falana
must appear in court to say how much he paid for the judgment which he sought
to enforce.
As of the time of filing this report, Falana had yet respond
to a text message by our correspondent seeking to get his reaction to Justice
Peter’s directive. His mobile line also rang out when our correspondent called.
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