Akinola Disagrees With Falana Over Blames On Osinbajo, Lawyers In Buhari’s Cabinet On DSS Misconduct – TheNigerialawyer

Veteran journalist and lawyer, Richard Akinola and a political
group have faulted Femi Falana, SAN over comments that the Nigerian
Bar Association (NBA) should discipline all lawyers in the Buhari
administration because of the desecration of the law courts by
officers of the DSS on Friday at a Federal High Court in Abuja,
Vanguard
report^[1]

In his reaction on Saturday, Mr Akinola said, “With the greatest
respect to my good friend, Femi Falana, SAN, l beg to disagree with
him in respect of his statement in respect of the Vice president on
the Sowore saga.

“It’s necessary to put things in proper perspective. There is
only ONE presidency. By my understanding, the VP cannot be issuing
statements on an issue when there is a sitting president.

He added that, “Recall that when Osinbajo was acting as
president and similar incident happened at the National Assembly,
he took action. The invasion of NASS started at about 7am and by
10.30 am, Lawal Daura had been fired as the DG of DSS.

“So, it would be unfair to attack the VP on this matter because
he is just the VP. The buck stops at the president’s table. If in
the president’s wisdom, he refused to take action, he must have his
reason. Ours is to speak out for him to take action,” he said.

Similarly, the Initiative to Save Democracy (ISD) described as
mischievous the comments credited to Mr. Falana.

In a press statement signed by Peter Oladele, Publicity
Secretary of ISD, the group said the lawyers in the Buhari
administration have not acted in any unprofessional capacity to
warrant any disciplinary action.

Besides, the group noted that regarding the Vice President, in
particular, it is an unrealistic expectation to require him to
respond officially on the misconduct of the DSS agents because the
executive powers of the Federal Government are vested only in the
person of the President not the Vice President or the lawyers in
the Cabinet.

“Besides the President who has the Executive powers in the 1999
Nigerian Constitution as Amended, the only person who has
responsibility on this matter is the Attorney-General of the
Federation,” the group explained, adding “these facts are well
known to Mr. Falana.”

The Initiative to Save Democracy (ISD) also recalled that while
the VP was acting for President Buhari and the DSS invaded the
National Assembly, Prof Osinbajo acted in defense of rule of law
and democracy in the country by removing the head of the
organization and condemning the invasion.

ISD then asked “why does Mr. Falana now think the VP or the
lawyers in the cabinet could not advise the President to act in a
similar way, after all it is the same Buhari Presidency?

“Mr Falana is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and he should know
that Section 11 of the NBA’s Legal Practitioners Act has specific
penalties for unprofessional conduct and there is no provision for
disciplining lawyers for the actions of other people,” the group
said.

“So how do you call for disciplinary actions against colleagues
who have not acted in any unprofessional capacity or have not
breached the rules of professional conduct,” the group quizzed.

The group then advised Mr Falana to rid himself of any emotional
outbursts that could overshadow what is otherwise a noble work he
is doing on the Sowore matter, stressing that, as a senior lawyer
he should know who has what powers and where the buck stops in a
Presidential system of government such as Nigeria is currently
practising.

“As a group we have condemned the actions of the DSS and have
called for the immediate release of Mr Sowore because the court has
ordered his release. We also condemn the re-arrest of Mr Sowore by
the DSS it only puts Nigeria in bad light. And we should not use
these unfortunate incidents to dent the image of lawyers in the
Buhari cabinet.”

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