The leader of a youth movement recently criticised lawyers for allegedly disrupting justice process initiated against public officeholders accused of corrupt practices. He sighted the instance where a group of lawyers obtained a court order stopping a probe being conducted against an elected public officer for alleged bribery incident.
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He also frowned at the huge legal fees being charged by some senior lawyers who defend alleged corrupt politicians standing trial and stated that this is encouraging
corruption in our political system. I want to align with this and urge the Nigeria Bar Association to rise and support the anti-corruption war and prevail on their members from adopting delay tactics in criminal cases like corruption. Grand corruption has remained the worse economic terrorism we can think about. All patriotic Nigerians must support the anticorruption war of the Buhari administration.
However, in prosecuting the anti-corruption war, President Buhari administration must respect the rule of law by obeying court orders. The government must recognise that we are not military rule. However, where it is determined that a member of the political class who is standing trial for corruption is associated with questionable properties any- where in the country or huge sum of money in an account is traced to the person, then the Executive Order must take effect.
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► Comrade Emeka Anozie, a social critic and human rights activist, wrote from Lagos