The Nigerian Bar Association said on Saturday that the removal of the stamp-and-seal from the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners by the Attorney-General of the Federation did not follow due process.
The National Publicity Secretary of the NBA, Dr Rapuluchukwu Nduka, said the leadership of the association had no fore-knowledge of the amendment of the RPC carried out by the AGF and only read about it like every other person.
Faulting the amendment as illegal, Nduka said there was no evidence that the amendment had the approval of the bar council.
He said the NBA would take any step within the ambit of the law including going to court to ensure the reversal.
Nduka said, “Concerning the publication about the amendment of the RPC (Rules of Professional Conduct), we saw it the way every other person saw it. I woke up this morning to see the publication. We want to believe that some things are not right. One of the things that is that it cannot be amended just that way. The law gives the power to the Bar Council to do the amendment. From what we hear, no member of the Bar Council who is a member of the NBA was aware. There was no meeting of the Bar Council when such decision was made.
“Up till now we also don’t have any official communication to that effect.
“We will be asking that some clarifications be made. Once we have the clarification I can tell you that any other steps including going to court to ensure the right thing is done will be taken. We are a law-abiding institutional body, we can’t just do anything outside the ambit of the law. We will take every step within the ambit of the law to ensure that the proper things are done. Even if it means going to court, we won’t be constrained to do that.”