Lagos lawyer calls for robust Bar-Bench relationship

A Lagos-based Constitutional Lawyer, Mr Spurgeon Ataene, on Wednesday, called for a robust Bar and Bench  relationship to accelerate the growth of the nation’s judiciary.

Reacting to cases of alleged assault on legal practitioners by some security agents, Ataene said the bar must be alive to its responsibilities.

He said that there was a dire need for effective interaction between the bar and bench in a bid to foster Justice delivery.

The lawyer also called for a functional body of legal practitioners who will assist in protecting the Judiciary from ridicule.

“There has been repeated infractions on the rights of lawyers in spite of the existence of a committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) with the task of dealing with such issues.

“The NBA Security Agencies Relations Committee (NBA-SARC) must live up to its mandate of being an interface between lawyers and security agencies for an enhanced collaboration

“The bar-bench relationship should be strong enough to dissuade the public from making lawyers and the bench a laughing stock.

“The NBA SARC must have strong impact in respect of enhancing and managing security as regards members of the NBA and security agencies.

“There has been needless and avoidable infractions on members notwithstanding the security organ.

“Lawyers easily get harassed in police stations. In fact most of them boast of how many lawyers they have detained.

“Magistrates and judges are not spared either; there have been reports of magistrates wrongly detained.

“Every police station must create an interactive session with the NBA in such a manner that issues regarding lawyers are on focus.

“This is to ensure that they will exhaust all avenues genuinely possible, before surrendering such lawyer to enforcement agents for investigation and possible prosecution,” he said.