SAN flays lawyers over crave for quick wealth

Nigerian lawyers have, again, been accused of jumping at every opportunity to make quick money thereby making a mockery and weakling of the legal profession.

This was the observation of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Arthur Okafor, while delivering a speech on Friday at the Law Week of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Effurun Branch, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.

He said the insatiable crave for quick money has robbed the legal profession of its corporate social responsibility of defending the weak and checkmating societal ills.

Okafor, while highlighting failures of lawyers as individuals or as NBA in this regard, said, several voices have been raised against the trend.

“The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has raised several alarms concerning indebtedness of various entities to Nigeria, which such monies if plunged into the ailing economy will boost same.”

NBA, as a body, can undertake a class action for the recovery of such monies.

By so doing they would have alleviated the sufferings of the masses considerably.

“NBA can also engage in public interest litigations through its various branches to remedy some environmental and social-economic wrongs such as unsubstantiated bogus bills imposed on the public by electricity companies and telecommunication providers,” he noted.

Former NBA President, Augustine Alegeh, SAN, Delta State Commissioner for Justice, Peter Mrakpor and the state’s Chief Judge, Marshall Mukoro, in their separate remarks, tasked lawyers to display more goodwill in providing free legal services to the indigent in society.

Chairman of the Effurun NBA branch, Dennis Agbaga, said the body, in its one year of existence, was doing so much to uplift the legal profession in its domain.

According to him, part of its roles included mobilizing relevant stakeholders towards the establishment of an ultramodern court complex for the Effurun Judicial Division.

Other participants also harped on the need for improved pro bono services by lawyers.