Yuceelanda.com
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) on Friday, February 5, 2016 arrested a
top Nigerian lawyer and Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), Ricky Tarfa for performing his
constitutional duties by defending his client,
Granhoue Sourou Nazaire.
Tarfa acting on the orders of his client, sought a
court order preventing Nazaire’s arrest by the
anti-graft agency. EFCC agents had reportedly
laid an ambush for Nazaire in a Lagos Court in
order to take him by surprise. But Tarfa got wind
of the plot and tried to get a judge to issue an
order barring the EFCC from arresting his client.
Sahara Reporters says that Tarfa has been in
EFCC detention since he was arrested by irate
agents of the commission.
Nazaire is a businessman from the Republic of
Benin.
This action against a lawyer is one more in a
long string of despotic actions by security
agencies under President Muhammadu Buhari.
There has been a consistent attempt to
intimidate the judiciary and lawyers under Buhari
who has declared that he only obeys court
orders when they are in line with his personal
beliefs. He had called on lawyers not to defend
clients with corruption cases at the conference
of the Nigerian Bar Association held in 2015.
This week, the national chairman of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun called for a probe of the
Supreme Court justices following their rulings on
election petitions this week. The decisions were
in favour of the main opposition party, the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers, Akwa
Ibom, Delta, Abia, and Taraba. The apex court
ruled in favour of the APC in Lagos, Oyo, and
Ogun States as well.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) on Friday, February 5, 2016 arrested a
top Nigerian lawyer and Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), Ricky Tarfa for performing his
constitutional duties by defending his client,
Granhoue Sourou Nazaire.
Tarfa acting on the orders of his client, sought a
court order preventing Nazaire’s arrest by the
anti-graft agency. EFCC agents had reportedly
laid an ambush for Nazaire in a Lagos Court in
order to take him by surprise. But Tarfa got wind
of the plot and tried to get a judge to issue an
order barring the EFCC from arresting his client.
Sahara Reporters says that Tarfa has been in
EFCC detention since he was arrested by irate
agents of the commission.
Nazaire is a businessman from the Republic of
Benin.
This action against a lawyer is one more in a
long string of despotic actions by security
agencies under President Muhammadu Buhari.
There has been a consistent attempt to
intimidate the judiciary and lawyers under Buhari
who has declared that he only obeys court
orders when they are in line with his personal
beliefs. He had called on lawyers not to defend
clients with corruption cases at the conference
of the Nigerian Bar Association held in 2015.
This week, the national chairman of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun called for a probe of the
Supreme Court justices following their rulings on
election petitions this week. The decisions were
in favour of the main opposition party, the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers, Akwa
Ibom, Delta, Abia, and Taraba. The apex court
ruled in favour of the APC in Lagos, Oyo, and
Ogun States as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment
DROP A MESSAGE