Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called on Nigerian judges and prosecutors to take a cue from Finland, following the speedy trial and conviction of Simon Ekpa on terrorism-related charges.

A District Court in Finland, in a judgment, sentenced Ekpa to six years in prison after finding him guilty of terrorism-related charges.

According to the judgment, Ekpa was found guilty of participating in a terrorist organisation and publicly incited crimes for terrorist purposes.

Ekpa, who is based in Finland, is known for being behind the enforcement of a sit-at-home order every Monday in the South-east in solidarity with the actualization of a Biafra nation and also in protest of the continued detention of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu.

Reacting to the conviction, the President of the NBA, Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), who said he was yet to get full details of the Finland court judgment, stated that he was very impressed with the short time it took to conclude investigation and trial.

Osigwe stated this while presenting the communiqué from the NBA’s Annual General Conference (AGC), which held in Enugu recently.

“I look at the time it took to do the trial,

and the sort of evidence relied on by the court in order for them to arrive at a decision. That should be a lesson for us,” he said.

The NBA president noted that trials take a longer time in Nigeria because “most judges still write longhand” instead of embracing technology, adding that investigators and prosecutors should endeavour to get enough evidence, build up a good case before going to court.

Osigwe also called on security agencies to awake to their responsibilities in checking abuse of social media, adding that: “Persons who have access to social media should be careful how they utilize them to promote hate or terrorism.”

He said: “We should look at those who are using it to provide ethnic hatred, to promote terrorism, and get hold of such, and try them,” rather than filing cyber-bullying charge against citizens in political matters.

Meanwhile, the NBA faulted the invitation of awardees of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), by the Department of State Service (DSS).

According to the body, sending a confidential report in respect of each of the awardees would have been enough instead of the grilling of the nominees.

“It does not require DSS inviting them,” he said, adding that “unfortunately, our members went there without informing us”.

A life bencher and former General Secretary of the NBA, Olumuyiwa Akinboro (SAN), had condemned the clearance of awardees by the DSS, noting that it undermines the independence of the legal profession.

However, the Supreme Court, in its response, had pointed out that the screening was in line with Paragraph 23 (2) of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee Guidelines, the body which is conferring the SAN rank on the lawyers.

But, the NBA is of the position that the job of the DSS should not go beyond sending confidential report on a nominee, because most of the information has already been volunteered by the lawyers themselves including reports from judges before whom the lawyers appear.

“Court records are there, Heads of Courts also write confidential report,” he added.

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