Don’t Allow DSS Screen New SANs”- Akinboro, SAN Warns NBA, LPPC, BOB

By Adesina Soyooye

A former General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has warned against a new decision which requires the Department of State Security, DSS, to screen new senior lawyers  already cleared by the appropriate Legal Bodies and Association for the conferment of the  Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, rank.

Aare Olumuyiwa Akinboro, SAN, who expressed worry over such a move described it as a dangerous precedent.

In a statement he issued on Monday he urged the NBA, the Legal Practitioners Privilges Committee, LPPC and the Body of Benchers, BOB, to resist it. He dismissed it “as an intrusion into the independence of the legal profession.”

His strong reason: “The conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria is not a political appointment, nor is it an executive privilege. It is a professional recognition rooted in the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act and administered solely by the LPPC.”

He posited that to subject SAN-designates to another external vetting after the appropriate legal organ, the LPPC had already carried out rigorous scrutiny would undermine due process and erode the sanctity of the legal profession.

He said: “The strength of the Bar has always been its autonomy. If we allow institutions outside the profession to insert themselves into its core processes without legal basis, we open the door to a precedent that may one day compromise not only the rank of SAN but also the independence of our Courts, our appointments, and ultimately, our ability to dispense justice without fear or favour.”

Akinboro, therefore, urged the NBA, the LPPC, and the  Body of Benchers to resist the dangerous development. To keep silent, he said,  amounts to  saying yes,  and agreeing to a dangerous concession.

Akinboro: “The legal profession must resist every attempt to muscle the Bar. To remain silent is to acquiesce, and acquiescence today may cost us the profession we hold dear tomorrow.”