The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has said the judicial system in the country should learn from Finland.
The association’s President, Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), made the statement following the speedy trial and conviction of Simon Ekpa on terrorism related charges, calling on judges and prosecutors to copy from that country.
A District Court in Finland, on Monday, sentenced Ekpa to six years in prison after finding him guilty of terrorism-related charges.
He said he was yet to get complete details of the Finnish court judgment, adding that he was very impressed with the short time it took to conclude the investigation and trial.
During the presentation of the communiqué from the NBA’s Annual General Conference (AGC), he said, “I look at the time it took to do the trial and the sort of evidence relied on by the court for them to arrive at a decision. That should be a lesson for us,” he said
The NBA president noted that trials take longer in Nigeria because “most judges still write longhand” instead of embracing technology, adding that investigators and prosecutors should endeavour to get enough evidence and build up a good case before going to court.
Osigwe also called on security agencies to be aware of their responsibilities in checking social media abuse, adding that “Persons who have access to social media should be careful how they utilise them to promote hate or terrorism.”
He said: “We should look at those who are using it to provide ethnic hatred, to promote terrorism, and get hold of such, and try them,” rather than filing cyber-bullying charges against citizens in political matters.
Meanwhile, the NBA faulted the Department of State Service (DSS) for inviting awardees of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
According to the body, sending a confidential report on each of the awardees would have been enough instead of grilling the nominees.
“It does not require DSS to invite them,” he said, adding, “unfortunately, our members went there without informing us.
Olumuyiwa Akinboro (SAN), a life bencher and former NBA General Secretary, condemned the DSS’s clearance of awardees, noting that it undermines the independence of the legal profession.
However, the Supreme Court, in its response, pointed out that the screening was in accordance with Paragraph 23 (2) of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee Guidelines, the body that confers the SAN rank on lawyers.
However, the NBA believes that the DSS’s job should not go beyond sending a confidential report on a nominee because most of the information has already been volunteered by the lawyers themselves, including reports from judges before whom the lawyers appear.
“Court records are there; Heads of Courts also write confidential reports,” he added.
