ALDRAP Seeks Perpetual Injunction against Supreme Court Registrar, Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi Over Blue Silks SCN Petitions
The Association of Legislative Drafting Practitioners, ALDRAP, urges the Honourable Court to grant a perpetual Injunction against Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi to prohibit him from ever bringing any petition before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee-LPDC against Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja SCN and any other Nigerian lawyer on the issue of the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria-SCN.
The grounds for the perpetual injunction is that Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi lacks both the locus standi and would be in violation of the Rules of Fair Hearing (you can not be a judge in your own case).
Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi is not a registered member of either the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners-ALDRAP, nor is he a member of the Nigerian Law Society-NLS upon whom the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria-SCN is confered.
The Blue Silk rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria-SCN is the equivalent of Fellowship rank for Non-litigation Nigerian Lawyers who are members of both the ALDRAP and the NLS, membership of both organisations is a pre-requisite requirement. This is in addition to payment of the prescribed fees and submission of thirty-five (35) verifiable non-litigation transactions or publications. All these requirements are assessed by members of a Screening Panel of the Body of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (BOSCON). The applicant for the Blue SILKS-SCN must have held a Bachelor of Laws-LLB degree for a minimum of ten (10) years.
Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi having not satisfied all the foregoing requirements lacks the locus standi to file a petition at the LPDC against Dr. Jaja and other lawyers. He has not suffered any exclusion or discrimination from the activities of the Blue SILKS-SCN.
Also, considering that Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi is both the Secretary of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee-LPPC and Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, he, the two statutory offices he occupies and his direct boss, the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) are all listed under the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962 as automatically as both ex-officio and statutory members of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee-LPDC.
Therefore, in view of the likelihood of bias in favour of Mr. Kabir Eniola Akanbi by members of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee-LPDC, the petition filed against Dr. Jaja and other lawyers by Mr. Akanbi ought to be dismissed in its entirety. A Perpetual Injunction against Mr. Akanbi to restrain him from bringing any petition against Dr. Jaja and other lawyers on this particular issue of the Blue SILKS-SCN for the entire period that Mr. Akanbi remains in office as both the Secretary of the LPPC and the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
