Supreme Law News

Dear NBA President/NEC, Please Perish the Thought of Implementating N50,000 2024-AGC Fee   For Young Lawyers: An Appeal for a Review In a country where perilous times permeate the fabrics of every sector; in a country where an economy digresses, hunger, high cost of living, fuel, gas, transportation, et al, yawn on the emaciated faces of every countryman and the air of vices gainfully breathing on the throats of all; in all these, what a time for Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) to plunge and confine its members to worry, particularly younger lawyers whom have become the worst hit, the worst targeted and the worst affected even when they are a viable and the acclaimed hope of the profession; what a time to be a young lawyer! What a time!  As tongue-bittered as it is, it is no longer news that the media space has been awash with publication of the upward review of the 2024-AGC Registration fees sadly approved by the NBA-NEC with young lawyers paying a throat-choking and neck-strangling sum...

GOODWILL MESSAGE May we begin by congratulating the Chairman of the NBA, Uyo Branch together with his Executive Committee Members and the Bar Week Planning Committee for this exquisite and excellent Bar Week 2024 laced with tapestry. Permit us to say this Bar Week is the best of its kind and history has just been updated. Ceremonies like this show our resilience and commitment as “Good Bar Men” to upholding justice even though it means running to catch up with the changes the world had already embraced, in terms of the emerging technologies. The theme of the Bar Week 2024: “Facing the Future: Justice Delivery, Technology and the Bar” using the Gen-Z slang; the organizers “ate and left no crumbs”, as it is well thought out for our today’s reality. Judges/Magistrates are humans, Lawyers are humans, Judiciary staff are humans and can only work to the extent to which their human capabilities can carry them which may not be in tandem with the expectations of the men on the other side of the...

FIVE(5) MILLION MONENARY JURISDICTION OF SMALL CLAIMS COURT IN AKWA IBOM STATE, A CLOG ON ITS ESSENCE: A CALL FOR QUICK REVIEW By ~ Meti M. Ukpeh, Esq. Uyo-based Human Rights Lawyer INTRODUCTION   There is absolutely no doubt that Akwa ibom State, being one of the fastest rising States economically in Nigeria, has joined states like Lagos State to bring efficient and effective justice administration to the people through the establishment of Small Claims Court in the state. However, as lofty and welcoming this idea is, the pegging of the monetary threshold calls for concern as this work will unveil with recommendations made herein It is pertinent to reiterate that Small Claims Court in Nigeria, usually a division created under the Magistrates' court, was designed to provide a simplified and cost-effective way for individuals and small businesses to resolve minor civil disputes, especially debt recovery claims. These courts handle cases involving small monetary claims, typically bel...

APPOINTMENT OF FIVE (5) JUDGES IN AKWA  IBOM STATE: AGES 40-45 YEARS A PANACEA TO THE ILLS OF S.291 OF 1999 CONSTITUTION.  By ~ Meti M. Ukpeh, Esq.     Uyo-based Human Rights Lawyer INTRODUCTION : With insecurity plaguing the nation; with over 4,000 inmates in correctional facilities; with insufficient and poorly managed court facilities in the state;  and with the judiciary, particularly, the Judges overburdened with cases amist archaic long- handed  approach in court against modern stenographic measures, the eventual announcement of the  call for nomination of eligible candidates for appointment of Judges, via the official correspondence of the Hon. Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State to the NBA, Uyo Branch, on the 22nd January,2024.,came as a solace, succur and timeously. Be that as it may, the question that tickles the mind is: in the mist of sound, well-lettered and evidently intelligent jurists in the state over the years, why does the state not produce more judges in the federal cour...

7-KEY STEPS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF REMUNERATION ORDER, 2023 :  END OF QUACKERY By ~ Meti M. Ukpeh, Esq.   Uyo-based Human Rights Lawyer Introduction : With the legal practice in coma; with the legal practice hanging on an ill-fated balance;  with legal practice battling with existential extinction and clogs posed by self-made and self-imposed "lawyers" and very recently, cyber/ICT programs/softwares such as Artificial Intelligence (CHATGPT, CHATBOT, etc.), the fate of who is a lawyer as defined in Sections 2 and 24 of the  Legal Practitioners Act continues to lurk in the murky waters of uncertainty.  Be that as it may, the advent of the Legal Practitioners (Remuneration for Business, Legal Services and Representation) Order, 2023(hereinafter referred to as: "Remuneration Order of 2023 or Order or, 2023 Order) came as a succour,  a solace and a beam of a long awaited light shone on the emaciated soul of the legal practice just to beckon in the era of sanity and sanctity of le...

AKWA IBOM YLF MAIDEN ANNUAL SUMMIT⚖️ THEME: CARVING A NICHE: The Role of Young Lawyers as Pathfinders in the Legal Profession Keynote Speaker: Cmr. Ini Ememobong Hon. Commissioner, Aks.  Speakers: * Chukwuka Ikwazom, SAN * Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN * Tobenna Erojikwe, Esq.  * Blessing Udofa-Poromon, Esq.  Date: 3rd & 4th December, 2023. EVENTS: 3/12/2023...Games Time: 2:30pm 4/12/2023..Main Event Time: 10am Venue: Ultramodern Bar Centre, Permanent Secretariat, Banking Layout, Udo Udoma Avenue, Uyo. Aks.  Samson Awuje, Esq.  Publicity Dpt.  AKYLAC - CPC

Akwa Ibom Customary Courts: Who will Save Our District Court Chairmen? By ~ Meti M. Ukpeh, Esq. [Uyo-based Human Rights Lawyer ] In Nigeria, beyond the Superior Courts of record recognized by the Constitution of Nigeria(as amended), there exist several other layers of courts, most of which exist by dint of the laws of the various states. In this class are the Customary Courts, Magistrates Courts, the Area Courts, among others.  In Akwa Ibom State, the Customary Courts occupy the immediate layer after the Customary Court of Appeal (though yet to be established), which explains why appeals from the Customary Courts go to the High Courts(S.67, CCL,2022).The Customary Court is the closest court to the grassroots(S.1, 14, and 18, CCL.) The Customary Courts in the state handle not less than 70 percent of the cases adjudicated upon in the State. I am not quite exact as to the total number of Customary Court Chairmen bearing this burden but I suspect that the figure must be hovering above nine...