COURT SUMMONS FEMI FALANA OVER JUDGEMENT COMMENTS

Femi Falana, SAN

A judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria , Justice J. D. Peter , has ordered activist

lawyer , Mr . Femi Falana (SAN ), to appear before him over comments credited to him .

Falana was reported to have said that Nigerian courts had become “ supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping” during the opening of the Enugu branch of the Nigerian Bar Association Law Week .

The Lagos lawyer was the guest speaker at the event . The theme of the event was Corruption and the Justice Sector : Implications for the Rule of Law and Democracy .

The lawyer was also said to have attacked the NBA for condoning corruption , saying that the body ’ s national election had become even more expensive than a governorship election, with each candidate spending as much as N700 m during the association ’ s presidential poll.

Falana asked the National Judicial Council and the NBA to restore integrity to the judiciary by identifying and exposing corrupt judges and lawyers .

However , a lawyer from Falana’ s chambers had on March 28 appeared before Justice Peter , who sits in Court 5 at the Lagos Division of the National Industrial Court .

The lawyer appeared in the court regarding a case , marked NICN/LA / 601 /2012 involving Chief Ebenezer Ayodele Obadimu vs G. CAPPA Plc .

Falana ’ s chambers is representing the judgment - creditor in the case and had then taken an application seeking to enforce the judgment through a garnishee procedure before Justice Peter .

However , before the lawyer from Falana ’ s chambers could make his submissions , the judge drew the counsel’ s attention to an online publication in which Falana had described courts as “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping” .

The judge subsequently adjourned the case for Falana to appear personally in court to explain “ if he obtained the judgment by purchase from the judicial supermarket and for how much ”.

He adjourned the case till May 13 , stressing that Falana must appear in court to say how much he paid for the judgment which he sought to enforce.
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