A legal practitioner, Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, SAN poured out some salient points concerning the ongoing Presidential election tribunal hoping that most of his colleagues, “the Almighty Judges” whose destinies of over 200 million Nigerians rest on their shoulders would listen.
Read his statements below :
“The manner in which we as lawyers keep defending desecration of democratic processes with arid legalistic, legal jargon since 1979 and from 1999 till date is what is responsible for the deteriorating disrespect for sovereignty of the people.Time for us as lawyers to think twice.
READ ALSO : #TribunalLiveUpdates : Final Update on Today’s Tribunal hearing.
Apart from professional fees we charge, is it not time to begin to ask ourselves many probing questions. Is our conduct contributing to growth and developments of democracy negatively or Positively. How many lives have been lost based on my legal contributions to democracy in Nig Exploiting legal technicalities to install and continue to install and encourage and perpetuate wicked people in power especially those who have no right to be in power is as satanic, wicked, evil and unconstitutional. Those who violate the constitution to be in power are evils.
We cannot continue to celebrate wicked and evil on the primordial legal rights. As we lawyers we owe far more duty to justice than to individuals clients. We are not and should not be slaves to money and our clients. Our allegiance is to the constitution and our society.