Lawyer petitions CJN over NBA’s alleged selective deployment of disciplinary committee
News Lawyer petitions CJN over NBA’s alleged selective deployment of disciplinary committee Published on March 2, 2026 By Casmir Nwankwo googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1500386953281-8'); }); A legislative lawyer, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, has petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, over alleged selective use of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA. LPDC is the body that is charged with disciplining legal practitioners found to be involved in acts of misconduct. The CJN chairs the LPDC. Jaja, Secretary of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, and former part-time Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, urged the CJN to intervene in the situation in a petition dated March 1, 2027. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1524595905268-5'); }); The lawyer specifically asked the CJN to “urgently intervene to save the legal profession by cleaning out the Augean Stables of the NBA’s selective use and abuse of the LPDC as a sword of witch-hunt of some lawyers while acting as a shield by refusal to enforce LPDC decisions against their friendly lawyers”. He listed instances where the NBA failed to sanction some lawyers while at the same time sanctioning others for alleged similar offenses. Jaja, who is currently training the lawyers with the Lesotho Ministry of Law and Justice, as well as the Lesotho Law Reform Commission, in a European Union project, expressed concern at the high level of professional misconduct among Nigerian lawyers. “Based upon my years of experience and interaction with lawyers of other foreign jurisdictions, I can state that professional misconduct amongst Nigerian lawyers is now of epidemic proportions and threatens to cause the demise of the Nigerian legal profession. “As your good self clearly admitted in March 2025, the adherence to professional ethics and standards by Nigerian lawyers is at an all-time low. “Based on both first hand experience and empirical legal research, I hereby present to your good self, empirical evidence of one of the root causes of the problem which now poses a clear and present danger to the existence of the Nigerian legal profession. “It is the problem of the Nigerian Bar Association’s selective use and abuse of the LPDC as a sword and a shield,” parts of the petition read. Jaja in the petition noted that the NBA in August 2025 queried a lawyer for alleged professional misconduct. “It (NBA) threatened to drag him before the LPDC in the event that he failed to comply with its directives. As of December 2025, the lawyer is still committing the same professional misconduct of using both the logos of the NBA and the Supreme Court of Nigeria on his personal letter headed paper. “The NBA has not taken any action against the said lawyer and our incorporated trustee of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) had to institute a lawsuit to seek an Order of Mandamus to compel the NBA to perform it’s statutory duty in this regard,” the petition said. Jaja pointed to another instance whereby, in 2021, the then Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, formally requested the NBA to institute charges against a lawyer based on credible evidence that he had violated provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2023, by standing as a surety for a former Chairman of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, who was accused of stealing public funds to the tune of ₦1 trillion. “Till today, the NBA has failed to prosecute the said lawyer at the LPDC,” the petition said. Jaja added that the NBA refused to enforce sanctions imposed on some of its officials by the LPDC who were allegedly indicted for online bullying and character assassination. Jaja, who is part of an association of Nigerian lawyers pushing for the introduction of the Blue Silks rank as alternative to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, also drew the CJN’s attention to his personal travails at the hands of NBA officials. “In November 2025, officials of the NBA unleashed a campaign of calumny against me and my reputation by repeated publication of defamatory and false statements on online platforms by stating that I received a query from the NBA for initiating the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria-SCN. “However, they failed and deliberately omitted the vital information that I had both responded to the said query by instituting a lawsuit against the Incorporated Trustees of the NBA at the Federal High Court Abuja regarding the legal right of the incorporated trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, to confer the Blue Silks rank upon its members in exercise of its fundamental rights of freedom of association under Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999,” he stated. Jaja however noted that in a similar matter, the NBA deliberately refused to drag a Senior Advocate of Nigeria before either the LPDC or the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC, for his role in the promotion of an illegal organisation which seeks to establish a parallel Bar Association, in violation of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962, which recognises only one Bar Association for Nigerian lawyers namely, the NBA. Jaja urged the CJN to intervene and restore sanity to the Nigerian legal profession by ensuring equitable and impartial application of the mechanism of the LPDC. Don't Miss ICPC weaponizing our father’s silence against him – El-Rufai’s family fumes You may like CJN Kekere-Ekun to inaugurate new Supreme Court Justice, Oyewole Feb 25. Lawyers petition CJN, insist Blue Silk ranks not regulated by Legal Practitioners Act CJN charges ECOWAS Court to work out guidelines for judgments enforcement CJN to inaugurate 14 new judges for Federal High Court February 18 CJN tasks Chief Registrars on automation of Nigeria’s court system It’s sad – NBA reacts to death of ex-CJN Tanko Muhammad