OGUN ASSEMBLY CRISIS: NBA WANT STATE OF EMERGENCY

The Nigerian Bar Association on Friday expressed concern over the state of affairs in Ogun State, where the legislative arm of government “has been in abeyance” for a prolonged length of time.
It specifically condemned the role played by the executive arm of government in the state in “precipitating the crisis” and called for the immediate resolution of crisis, failing which the Federal Government should set in motion the relevant process for the declaration of a state of emergency.
The NBA, in a communiqué issued at the end of its National Executive Council meeting in Gombe and signed by its President, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN) and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emeka Obegolu, condemned the proposed plan to create additional states in the country, stating that it would heat up the polity and create unnecessary distractions ahead of the 2011 elections.
The communiqué, made available to our correspondent on Friday in Abuja, said, “NEC noted and reviewed the decision by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to embark on state creation, but advised that its timing could heat up the polity and create unnecessary distractions, having regard to the impending 2011 general elections in the country and urged the Senate to shelve the idea for the time being.”
The association reviewed the mode of appointment of legal practitioners as its representatives into the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee by the Chief Justice of Nigeria without its input, saying it was “totally unacceptable.”
It resolved that its representatives in the LPPC should, apart from being made in consultation with the NBA, must include its president.
The association noted the general state of insecurity, infrastructural decay and acts of executive lawlessness in the country, and called on government at all levels to live up to their responsibilities and ensure good governance.
The NBA flayed the total decline in the criminal justice system in the country as a result of the failure and neglect on the part of the legislature to pass pending relevant laws such as the Criminal Justice Reform Bill, the Evidence (Amendment) Act, and EFCC (Amendment).
It noted, “The abuse of the plea bargaining system, which is not backed by specific federal legislation, but frequently employed by federal agencies to provide soft landing for convicts of corruption-related offences and therefore called on the National Assembly to expedite action on the passage into law of the relevant pending bills for efficient criminal justice administration in Nigeria.”