NBA urged to withdraw support for arrested members

A civil society group, Nigerians United Against Corruption‎ (NUAC) has called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to withdraw its

During a protest in Abuja on Thursday, October 13, 2016, the group also urged the NBA not to support corruption in any form.

Comrade Ogenyi Okpokwu, who led the group to the headquarters of the NBA advised the lawyers to set up an independent body that would investigate issues of corruption in the profession, with the aim of "excommunicating ‎the bad eggs."

"We demand that the NBA withdraws all form of support and sympathy for these corrupt elements which have most certainly tainted the image of one of the world’s most dignified professions," Okpokwu said.

"All the judges so far indicted or arrested for corruption immediately resign considering the magnitude of the case that the DSS has built against them.

"The cases of those that have been given lenient punishments that amount to a slap on the wrist by the National Judicial Council (NJC) should be revisited with a view to dragging them before a law court.

"The arrested judges should be charged to court within the shortest time possible to that they cannot claim their rights were violated," he added.

The Department of State Services (DSS) had last weekend arrested Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro; the suspended Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division, Justice Mohammed Tsamiya; Justice Kabiru Auta of the Kano State High Court; and Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja.