Good morning distinguished Learned Silks, distinguished elders of the bar and distinguished colleagues.
It is only a non-practising lawyer that will buy the crap that is being peddled by some persons who do not have knowledge of the law and the practice of our courts.
This gibberish of the the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team writing the Judgment was being spurned by some media goons working for one of the Presidential Candidates. It is very disingenuous for lawyers who know more than the ordinary man to enter the fray and support such thoughts that are unlawyerly.
The Court of Appeal is made up of several Judges and many support staff, who are mostly lawyers. My engagement with the Court of Appeal is that they are very very thorough. The suggestions being made is not possible and to a right thinking lawyer unthinkable.
I understand the PDP Legal Team got the Judgment first and they do not have the referenced watermark on the Judgment. It is the Court’s Records that determine the state of an issue. We, as professionals, should guide the general public.
Some lay men have even reasoned better than some lawyers in this regard and it is indeed a shame that some of us are bringing our profession to disrepute, based on social media rumours, not substantiated, in the eyes of right thinking members of the public .
Lawyers, as ministers in the temple of justice, should protect the courts against ridicule built on false narratives. The court is our farm. The more we denigrate the courts, the more we lose our value as lawyers .
Let us not set our house on fire. Let us, as lawyers, rather set the records straight. It is in our collective interest as a profession. We need to use legal intelligence. If the Judiciary loses its respect, we will lose our essence as lawyers . The relationship is one of the egg and the chick. We have no other jobs, but law. Let us be very circumspect.
-Douglas Ogbankwa Esq.,
Benin City, Nigeria, 10th September, 2023. 9:48am.
Of law and the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal verdict
