The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has petitioned the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service over assault on one of its members by the operatives.
The video of the assault had recently gone viral in the social media, showing officers of Customs Service shoving and pushing the unidentified lawyer behind a counter. Reports had I that the lawyer went to help his client, whose car was reportedly impounded.
The petition by the Joe-Kyari Gadzama-led Nigerian Bar Association-Security Agencies Relations Committee (NBA-SARC) condemned the act of the NCS as seen meted out to a man in the video.
The NBA-SARC said its appeal to the legal practitioner in the viral video or anyone with relevant information on the identity, name and/or NBA branch of the victim, to come forward ahead of the NBA-SARC’s planned visit to the NCS, had yielded result.
The NBA-SARC disclosed that it had successfully unravelled the identity of the legal practitioner in the viral video, identified as Kolawole Isaac Abubakar, Esq., a senior lawyer at Refuge Chambers who hails from Kogi State.
In the meeting held with the Chairman of the NBA-SARC Joe-Kyari Gadzama, SAN, on Sunday, February 27, 2022, Mr Kolawole Isaac Abubakar, who visited alongside Mr Friday Omakoji Abu and Danjuma Aliyu, informed the Learned Silk that he was detained by the NCS for three hours on the fateful day in September 2021.
During the meeting, the Learned Silk was able to make the following vital findings from the legal practitioner:
1. The mobile phone which was used to record the dastardly incident was damaged and as a result of this, the video could not be made public as soon as the incident occurred.
2. The recording of the viral video was only retrieved recently and thus, the decision to make it public now.
3. Also, Kolawole Abubakar Isaac, Esq. has since given the NCS a pre-action notice to sue them.
4. Kolawole Isaac Abubakar, Esq. further narrated that leading to the assault by officers of NCS, one Alhaji Danjuma Aliyu engaged the legal services of Refuge Chambers to represent him in ensuring the release of his vehicle which was held in the custody of NCS.
5. That on the receipt of a letter from Refuge Chambers, NCS invited Refuge Chambers for a meeting and Kolawole Isaac Abubakar, Esq. being a senior lawyer at Refuge Chambers was instructed to attend the meeting at the customs headquarters along with the Client.
6. On arrival, they were directed to an officer named F.C Nweze. At the office of F.C Nweze, questions were being asked and when Barr. Kolawole Isaac Abubakar attempted to explain the situation and the position of the law, the officer in charge (F.C Nweze) got angry and ordered that the lawyer be bundled and detained in the detention facility at the headquarter and as a result of that he was brutalized and harassed.
Abubakar utilized the opportunity to apologise for the delay in the release of the video and for his omission to report the matter formally to the NBA, which had led to some tension in the legal community.
He stated that he is presently handling the matter for his client’s vehicle as well as pursuing a civil suit against NCS for damages.
He expressed his gratitude to Chief Gadzama and the NBA-SARC for their efforts which had brought succour to many legal practitioners, particularly the younger members of the profession.
In line with the mandate of the committee, NBA-SARC is now intervening in the matter and would continue to ensure that justice prevails in the matter and in every other matter that involves the maltreatment and harassment of legal practitioners by security agents across Nigeria.