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(Nigeria) A bill for a law establishing the Lagos State Deoxyribo-Nucleic Acid , DNA , and f orensic centre to support criminal investigations, law enforcement, preservation of evidence for the judicial system and for other connected purposes has been passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly. The bill was passed by the House after it scaled the third reading at plenary on Monday with all lawmakers in attendance giving their approvals. The report on the bill had been adopted at an earlier sitting presided over by Speaker ,   Mudashiru Obasa. A part of the objectives of the centre includes to provide for the use and regulation of DNA based technology in the Lagos State in order to carry out profiling or analysis. The centre is to also "carry out other forensic disciplines including, toxicology, drug chemistry, finger print examination, firearms examination, tool mark examination, ballistics, trace evidence analysis, questioned document examination and digital forensics t

*Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN (Nigeria) By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN The events unfolding at the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association, in relation to the suspension or purported suspension of the General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association is unbecoming and deserving of condemnation by all lovers of the legal profession. Some members of the National Executive Council of the NBA claimed to have suspended the General Secretary for whatever reason. Mrs. Joyce Oduah in response proceeded to the Court to challenge the said suspension and all the parties in the said suit have been duly notified, especially of her pending application for an order of injunction, whilst some of the defendants in the said suit have challenged the jurisdiction of the court.   This case has thrown open the underbelly of legal practice in Nigeria, as this is what plays in virtually all courts between parties in most cases where judicial intervention is sought for one cause or the other. I

*Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN (Nigeria) The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee , LPDC , has thrown out the petition filed before it by the Nigerian Bar Association , NBA , asking that partners of Wole Olanipekun & Co ., be investigated over ambulance chasing accusations. In a petition dated July 19, 2022, NBA through its Vice President, John Aikpkokpo-Martins filed the petition against Wole Olanipekun’s chambers over a letter written by a staff of the Chambers, Ms Adekumbi Ogunde, soliciting a brief from SAIPEM, in a $130 million suit against the Rivers State government. The brief was already being handled by the chambers of Odein Ajumogobia, a former Attorney General of Rivers State. Three days after, precisely on July 22, 2022, NBA President, Olumide Akpata wrote to the founder of the Chambers, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, who is also the Chairman, Body of Benchers , BoB, to recuse himself as Chairman over the incident. This was despite the denial by the writer o

*Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN (Nigeria) Muiz Banire SAN This prompted another action in Abuja filed by Vigeo Power Limited before the Honourable Justice Emeka Nwite in which the court granted orders restraining the defendants in the suit from taking over the management of the BEDC. The court order, a copy of which I am privileged to see, also directs the directors appointed by PBE from parading themselves as directors of the company pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice. The above orders have been observed more in the breach than observance as the Federal Government has deployed force through the police to take over BEDC and eject the board representatives of Vigeo Power Limited, the 60% shareholder of the company. The government has been carrying on as if the court order was a mere piece of toilet paper. When the police realized that there were court orders and the Inspector-General of Police chose to toe the path of rule of law, the defendants in the suit, who obvio

* Prof.  Epiphany Azinge , SAN (Nigeria) Former Director General of Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Prof. Epiphany Azinge , SAN, has been appointed President of President of Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal , CSAT . Commonwealth Secreta ry General, Patricia Scotland , QC , in a letter dated August 23, 2022, coveying the appointment to Prof. Azinge , said: “ Pursuant to your nomination to, and selection by, the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and in accordance with the Statute of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal , CSAT, I write with pleasure to invite you to accept appointment as President of CSAT. “ If you are able to accept the terms set out below, your appointment as President will run concurrently with your second and final four-year term as a member of the Tribunal, taking immediate effect and expiring on May 31, 2023. “ As President of CSAT you are entrusted with the timely discharge of the functions and responsibiliti

*Muiz Banire, SAN (Nigeria) By Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN  That there is a correlation between disobedience to court order and anarchy seems to be a fact yet to be appreciated by most Nigerians. This probably informs the choice of topic by the recent NBA-SPIDEL organizing committee when it couched the conversation as “Disobedience to court orders and the slide to state of anarchy”.  This presupposes the probability of a slide to anarchy should court orders be continuously disobeyed. I was privileged to be the lead speaker and I had to recalibrate the title of my presentation as above. This is simply based on my conviction that it is not when a country is in a state of war that there is anarchy.  The Yoruba’s will say, ‘Ogede nbaje, eni o n pon’ (a banana piece is getting rotten you claim its getting ripe). Why are we camouflaging the reality in a different garb, just to satisfy the demand of courtesy? Aptly captured in the Yoruba proverb, ‘Nitori kini a se pon jebe ni akisa?’ I think we ar

*Joyce Oduah (Nigeria) By Joyce Oduah Ordinarily, I would not have responded to the disclaimer issued by the President on August 13, 2022, but I am constrained to do so. It is important that I set the record straight as I have received numerous calls from concerned members asking me to state my side of the story. Let me begin by saying that my loyalty goes to the generality of the members of our great profession; and so, in carrying out my responsibilities as the General Secretary of the association, I will uphold, dispatch my responsibilities by working within the ambit of the NBA Constitutional provisions whilst respectfully carrying out legal directives and instructions from the National Executive Council, NEC, and the President. As the President stated in paragraph 1 of the Notice, the NBA National Executive Council, NBA-NEC, at the last meeting held in Ilorin on June 9, 2022, resolved that some amendments be made to the NBA Constitution. These amendments include the ‘Increment of

(Nigeria) To enhance transparency in traffic management and enforcement, the Lagos State Government has deployed more body cameras to the Lagos Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, personnel. The event which took place at the weekend during the visit of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation,  Sola Giwa to the LASTMA headquarters at Oshodi, Lagos State had the LASTMA Personnel issued more body cameras with the pledge to keep them working for increased credibility and confidence in the delivering of effective traffic management and enforcement. Explaining the reason for the redeployment of the gadgets, the Special Adviser stated that the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration has brought lots of technological innovations to address the transport challenges of the State of which the body camera was one, for accurate traffic management among many other benefits. Expressing his optimism of the bodycam to be able to deliver authentic traffic law violation reports or complai

*Muiz Banire, SAN    (Nigeria) My intervention today is a personal one. It may roll into the problems confronting the nation as regards the escalating poverty level and the demand culture from the people around us. I believe and even know that it is like that with many averagely better off citizens, as the case has become the living proof of the Yoruba proverb that “Olowo kan laarin otosi mefa, otosi ni gbogbo won,” which translates to mean “one rich man in the midst of six destitute individuals is also destitute”.  My attitude towards giving to people around me, whom I consider to be in need, has always been extremely generous. Some would come when I am close to being broke and I am nursing the spirit of rejecting them. After a while, a counselling spirit would descend on me with a sense of guilt. I would feel that the fellow might have no other source of help and might commit suicide. At times, I would feel that my failure to give might lead the fellow into depression or even death

(Nigeria) Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently instruct Mr Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture to withdraw the threat to sanction the BBC and Daily Trust over their documentaries on terrorism in the country, whether through the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, NBC, or any other agency of government.” According to reports, Mr Mohammed had last Thursday stated that the Federal Government would sanction the BBC and Trust Tv for airing documentaries that allegedly “glorify”, “promote”, and “fuel” terrorism and banditry in Nigeria. In a letter dated 30 July, 2022 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said, “The media has the duty to impart information and ideas on issues of public importance. If carried out, the threat to sanction the BBC and Daily Trust would inhibit the media from reporting on issues of public interest.” According to SERAP, “Media houses and journal

(Nigeria) Lawyers from all the branches of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA, in Lagos State on Thursday, stormed the Chambers of the Honourable Chief Judge of Lagos Lagos State, Juso Kazeem Alogba, to discuss issues relating to the administration of Justice in the State. Led by Bar leaders and senior lawyers, the chairmen of NBA, Lagos Branch, Ikeja Branch, Ikorodu Branch, Badagry Branch, Epe Branch, Surulere Branch and other selected Bar leaders, all gathered together to brainstorm with the judiciary. The meeting was also attended by the Honourable Attorney-General of Lagos State, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo, SAN.  In recent times, there have been protests from lawyers and litigants concerning the slow and frustrating process of filing papers in the Registry of the Court due to the ineffectiveness of the Judicial Information System. Leading the NBA Team were Dr. Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, Dr. Monday Ubani, Mr. Yinka Farounbi, Ms Patience Patrick-Udoh and chairmen of

*Nnamsi Kanu (Nigeria) Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was cautioned that nothing bad  should  happen to its leader, Mazi Nnamsi Kanu, who is currently in the custody of Department of State Security, DSS, saying that threat by terrorist to attack Abuja by terrorist was targeted at the life of its leader. IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said: "We demand immediate release of Mazi Nnamsi Kanu now as terrorist threatens to attack security facilities in Abuja. "The attention of the global movement and family of IPOB, has been drawn to the sudden closure of all the Government public schools operating in Abuja because of the threats from terrorists groomed by the Nigerian government to take over Abuja and entire Nigeria. "As Nigeria is closing schools, businesses, and other activities because of Fulani terrorists threat to attack Abuja, it clearly shows that Abuja is no longer safe for people to live and the life of our leader Mazi Nn

*Nigerian Senate (Nigeria) President Muhammadu Buhari has written the Senate to confirm 19 nominees as Resident Electoral Commissioners for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The confirmation request to the upper chamber was contained in a letter dated July 25, 2022. The letter was read at plenary by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan. President Buhari, in the letter, said that the request for the confirmation of the nominees was in accordance with the Provisions of Section 154 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). He explained that the nomination of five Resident Electoral Commissioners are for renewal, while the other 14 are fresh appointments. The nominees for confirmation include: Ibrahim Abdullahi (Adamawa - Renewal); Obo O. Effanga (Cross River - Renewal); Alh. Umar Ibrahim (Taraba - Renewal); Dr. Agboke Olaleke (Ogun - Renewal); and Prof. Samuel Egwu (Kogi - Renewal). Others are: Onyeka Ugochi (Imo); Prof. Muha

*Nigerian Senate (Nigeria) The bill’s passage was sequel to the consideration of a report by the Committee on Power. Chairman of the Committee, Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue North East), in his presentation, said the bill seeks to, amongst others, provide an Ideal legal and institutional framework to leverage on the modest gains of the privatisation phase of the electricity power sector in Nigeria. He added that when signed into law, the bill would improve utilisation of generated power through increased investments in new technologies to enhance transmission and distribution of generated power to minimise aggregate value chain loses. According to the lawmaker, the piece of legislation would “reinvigorate the Institutional framework for the reform of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, initiated and implemented by the Federal Government.” He disclosed that the provisions of the bill seeks to promote policies and regulatory measures that would ensure the expansi

*Nigerian Senate (Nigeria)The Senate has passed the Nigerian Start-up Bill, 2022. The passage of the bill followed the consideration of a report by the Committee on ICT and Cyber Security. Chairman of the Committee, Senator Oseni Yakubu (APC - Kogi Central), in his presentation, said the bill seeks to provide for the establishment of the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship. According to him, the council, upon its establishment, would create and develop an enabling environment for technology-enabled start-ups in Nigeria. Meanwhile, a bill for an Act to provide for the ease of doing business to ensure transparency, efficiency and productivity in Nigeria and for other related matters, on Wednesday, scaled second reading. The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice (APC - Ondo North). The bill after consideration, was referred by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Trade and Investment for further legislative i

*Muiz Banire, SAN They forget the suffering they had been enduring prior to that elevation. In a lot of courts, heads of courts hardly agitate the needs of their colleagues. A vivid example was during the last Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) strike on judicial autonomy. While a lot of us struggled actively for financial autonomy for the judiciary, particularly at the state levels, it is disheartening to watch the heads of courts not being on the same page with not only JUSUN but even the NJC sub-committee on financial autonomy. That is why today the issue of financial autonomy seems now to be in coma. If the heads of courts and other judicial officers had joined forces on the issue, I am sure that the situation would not be as it is today. The fear of misappropriation expressed in some quarters, in the event of the grant of financial autonomy, is certainly not misplaced. It is to be addressed by the appointment of Court administrators who will be responsible for the day-to-da