By Jane Okafor, Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has challenged popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) to tell the world how he qualified as Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), list the number of major cases he won and what he has done for the development of the legal profession to become a SAN.
Throwing the challenge through Lere Olayinka, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, in a statement, Wike accused Falana of being an “arrangee and errand lawyer.”
The Daily Crucible reports that the human rights lawyer .had in a statement on Monday, insisted he never lied about the apex court’s decision on the alleged defection of 27 Rivers State lawmakers, describing Wike’s comments as a deliberate attempt to incite the judiciary against him.
“In a recent media outburst, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike, taunted me for losing a case which he won at the Supreme Court.
“He went as far as dubbing me ‘a television lawyer’. However, I did not respond at the time because Mr. Wike is the only Life Bencher in Nigeria who has never handled a case in any trial or appellate court,” Falana stated.
Falana noted that Wike renewed his onslaught against him during a press conference in Abuja, accusing him of lying about the defection status of 27 lawmakers in Rivers State during a Channels Television interview.
Wike had accused the SAN of misinformation regarding the 27 Rivers lawmakers’ defection.
The minister further claimed that such misinformation from respected legal figures could plunge Rivers State into political unrest and destabilize it.
He stated, “A few days ago, the Supreme Court settled this matter of defection. If someone of Femi Falana’s calibre can go on national television and lie, it’s very serious. Lies can cause a lot of crises.”
However, Falana maintained that his commentary was a factual and constitutional analysis of the situation.
“Contrary to Mr Wike’s assertion, I did not lie against the Supreme Court,” he said.
“All I said was that the matter of the defection of the 27 legislators was raised suo motu and determined by the eminent Justices of the apex court,” he noted.
But countering Falana, through his aide Olayinka, the FCT Minister said “it is funny and ridiculous that in the mind of Falana, only those who have handled cases in trial court or appellate court are lawyers, and that a lawyer must have handled cases in trial or appellate court to be qualified for appointment as a Life Bencher.”
The Minister added that he got his membership of the Body of Benchers on merit, having contributed immensely to the advancement of legal education, asking; “Apart from going on television to make noise, what has Falana contributed to the legal profession? Even the SAN that he got, was it not an afterthought? Was it not years after his mates had gotten SAN?
He said; “As Governor of Rivers State, Wike, was instrumental to the establishment and infrastructural development of the campus of the Nigerian Law School in Port Harcourt, which is the best centre for legal education in Nigeria today. He also played major roles in the development of facilities at the Yenagoa campus of the Nigerian Law School by constructing a state-of-the-art 1,500 capacity hall and 200-bed male and female hostels, among other interventions.
“Now that he is FCT Minister, he is constructing a 10-unit housing quarters for the Nigerian Law school, Bwari, Abuja. He has also provided operational vehicles to the school to improve its operation.
“The question is; what has Falana done for the legal profession? Even in Ekiti State, where he is from, he has not contributed anything.
“The Bar Center in Ado Ekiti was built by Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) while the one in Ikere Ekiti was built by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN). Also, Aare Afe Babalola has been sponsoring Nigerian Bar Association annual lecture for years and has been assisting lawyers in Ekiti with medical treatments in his Ado Ekiti teaching hospital. What has Falana done? Nothing!
“Did Falana not fail as a politician when he went to Ekiti to contest for governor and failed woefully?”
Olayinka, who counselled lawyers like Falana to stop misleading their clients, pointed out that he (Falana) lied on
National Television by saying that the Supreme Court judgment on Rivers State “had nothing to do with who is the authentic Speaker of the House” when the issue of defection of the 27 members of the House of Assembly was determined by the Supreme Court.
“It was on the basis of the Supreme Court judgment that Justice Emmanuel Obile of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt dismissed the suit filed by the Labour Party against the alleged defection, saying that the Supreme Court’s ruling had finalized the issue of defection.
“But Falana went on television to lie and deceive his client that the Supreme Court didn’t rule on the defection.
“The same Falana said three members of the Rivers State House of Assembly can carry out legislative functions despite the provision of Section 96 (1) of the 1999 Constitution that ‘The quorum of a House of Assembly shall be one-third of all the members of the House.’
“If as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, you could tell your client that Section 96 (1) of the Constitution of Nigeria is useless and in a House of Assembly of 32 members, three can sit, questions need to be asked as to how exactly you qualified as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria,” he said.
