By Donald Iorchir
Chairman of the Gwagwalada branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Barrister Daud Sulayman, has called on members to always project the image of the profession in a more positive manner.
He made the call recently while delivering his message at the 2016 annual Law Week organised by members of the association in Gwagwalagda area council.
Sulayman, who described lawyers as “ministers in the temple of justice,” advised them to adhere to the code of ethics guiding the profession in order to rise up to the challenges facing the judiciary and the legal profession.
“I am not saying that corrupt judicial officers or lawyers should not face the wrath of the law, but I am saying that the rule of law must be strictly adhered to, in order to keep to the ethics,” he said.
Barrister Sulayman advocated for the internal assessment of the practitioners with a view to tackling quacks, ‘who move around to dent the image of the profession.”
He said in the past “a lawyer was seen as a symbol of honesty, integrity, embodiment of knowledge as well as a king when he spoke his words, carried weight and not lie, but as a divine revelation.”
The chairman pledged his commitment to building a befitting Bar centre in Gwagwalada town for the benefit of members and the host community, which he said would be named after the immediate past president of the association, Mr. Augustine Aleghe, even he dedicated a journal in honour of the incumbent president of the association for his passion to uphold the rule of law.
He, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the recent arrest of some key judicial officers on alleged corruption, describing the action as “a mere intimidation” and called on his colleagues not to allow “anybody or government to inject fears into the minds of judges or legal practitioners.”
On his part, the guest speaker, Augustine Aleghe, in his paper entitled “Professional Ethics and the Future of Legal Profession in Nigeria” tasked lawyers to respect the ethics of the profession, just as he urged them to always appear neat and to dress properly while in court.
