A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ahmadu Ali, has called for the enactment of a law to regulate fees being charged clients by lawyers.
Ali, a former minister of edification, verbalized while contributing to the debate on the reports of the Committee on Law, Judiciary and Reforms, in Abuja on Monday.
He verbally expressed it was erroneous for lawyers to charge clients their entire life savings because of a single case, integrating that if the country could regulate fuel, drug engenderment and others in the country, then fees being charged by lawyers must be regulated.
Though his submission elicited cachinnation from the delegates, Ali remained unmoved in his conviction that his conception was novel.
He verbally expressed, “Lawyers should be ceased from charging sizably voluminous licit fees. We regulate fuel, regulate drugs and others. We must regulate licit fees as well.
“We must move against lawyers who charge so much because of a single case. We must work on this, it is one of the reasons why we are here.”
In his contribution, an elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, inculpated senior lawyers of delaying cases in court, and wondered why the Supreme Court was being saddled with some minor cases.
Clark, a former minister of information, withal wondered why the highest court in the land should additionally be handling same case more than twice.
He verbally expressed, “What I have optically discerned in the Supreme Court now gives me some concern. Before, when you mention the Supreme Court, you would cerebrate you were peregrinating to heaven.
“Now, the Supreme Court endeavors one case for more than three times. That is lamentable and at the cessation of the day, you don’t optically discern the law backing such action.
“Any case going to the Supreme Court must be optically discerned to be very, very paramount. I’m pleading that senior lawyers should examine themselves. It is not enough to verbalize I’m a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
“You must be visually perceived to be laying good examples, but now senior lawyers sit at home and adjourn cases without even peregrinating to court. This is lamentable.”
As the delegates clapped in acquiescent with his submission, Clark integrated that he fortified the call for the establishment of special courts to handle corruption cases.
The report of the committee, headed by Justice George Oguntade, recommended that the entire judicial system needed overhauling to make it compatible with current realities.
It integrated that in order to ascertain more preponderant financial autonomy for the Judiciary and insulate it from manipulative tendencies of other organs of regime all its funds both capital and recurrent should be made a first line charge on the consolidated revenue fund of the federation or state account.
It withal recommended the establishing of electoral offences tribunal to endeavor alleged electoral offences and that there must be an amendment to withdraw the potencies of the Attorney General to enter nolle prosequi on cases in courts.
Some other recommendations were that the justiciability of the socio-economic rights under the fundamental objectives and directive principles in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution should be ensured and accorded the same rights as that of human rights.
It additionally verbally expressed that in order to facilitate approbation and implementation of the conference recommendations, the committee proposed that the recommendations should be broken into three components.
They are policy recommendations, issues requiring abrogation or amendment of some subsisting but archaic or obnoxious laws and issues that would require outright amendment of some sections of the constitution.
It verbally expressed that for policy recommendations arising from the conference, such issues must be implemented by the President while implementation of recommendations requiring abrogation of amendment of subsisting laws or regulations other than the constitution should be carried out by the pertinent ascendant entities in the ministries, departments and agencies.
Recommendations requiring amendment to certain sections of the constitution, the report verbally expressed, should be drafted as a bill and submitted to the President for onward transmission to the National Assembly.
Copyright PUNCH.
