Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), are at each other’s throat, literarily, over the Supreme Court ruling on the defection crisis rocking the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Wike had seized the platform of a press conference in Abuja to accuse Falana of lying about the defection status of 27 lawmakers in Rivers State during a Channels Television interview.
He had accused the SAN of misinformation regarding the alleged defection of the 27 Rivers lawmakers, and claimed that such misinformation from respected legal figures could destabilise the state and cause political unrest.
Wike challenged Falana to list the number of major cases he won and what he has done for the development of the legal profession that qualified him to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
He described Falana as being an “arrangee and errand lawyer” over his comments on National television.
The minister spoke through his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka.
The SSA, in a statement issued on Monday, said: “it is funny and ridiculous that in the mind of Falana, only those who have handled cases in trial court or appellate court are lawyers, and that a lawyer must have handled cases in trial or appellate court to be qualified for appointment as a Life Bencher”.
Olayinka, who said the FCT Minister got his membership of the Body of Benchers on merit, having contributed immensely to the advancement of legal education, asked; “Apart from going on television to make noise, what has Falana contributed to the legal profession?
“Even the SAN that he got, was it not an afterthought? Was it not years after his mates had gotten SAN?
He said: “As Governor of Rivers State, Wike was instrumental to the establishment and infrastructural development of the campus of the Nigerian Law School in Port Harcourt, which is the best centre for legal education in Nigeria today.
“He also played major roles in the development of facilities at the Yenagoa campus of the Nigerian Law School by constructing a state-of-the-art 1,500 capacity hall and 200-bed male and female hostels, among other interventions.
I didn’t lie against S/Court, Falana fires back at Wike
“Now that he is FCT Minister, he is constructing a 10-unit housing quarters for the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja. He has also provided operational vehicles to the school to improve its operation.
“The question is; what has Falana done for the legal profession? Even in Ekiti State, where he is from, he has not contributed anything?
“The Bar Center in Ado Ekiti was built by Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), while the one in Ikere Ekiti was built by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).
“Also, Aare Afe Babalola has been sponsoring Nigerian Bar Association annual lectures for years and has been assisting lawyers in Ekiti with medical treatments in his Ado Ekiti teaching hospital. What has Falana done? Nothing!
“Did Falana not fail as a politician when he went to Ekiti to contest for governor and failed woefully?”
Olayinka, who counselled lawyers like Falana to stop misleading their clients, pointed out that he (Falana) lied on National Television by saying that the Supreme Court judgment on Rivers State “had nothing to do with who is the authentic Speaker of the House” when the issue of defection of the 27 members of the House of Assembly was determined by the Supreme Court.
“It was on the basis of the Supreme Court judgment that Justice Emmanuel Obile of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt dismissed the suit filed by the Labour Party against the alleged detection, saying that the Supreme Court’s ruling had finalized the issue of defection.
“But Falana went on television to lie and deceive his client that the Supreme Court didn’t rule on the defection.
“The same Falana said three members of the Rivers State House of Assembly can carry out legislative functions despite the provision of Section 96 (1) of the 1999 Constitution that ‘The quorum of a House of Assembly shall be one-third of all the members of the House.’
“If as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, you could tell your client that Section 96 (1) of the Constitution of Nigeria is useless and in a House of Assembly of 32 members, three can sit, questions need to be asked as to how exactly you qualified as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria,” Olayinka said.
