By Femi Falana, SAN
An application was filed in 2020. It was taken in 2023 due to no fault of the counsel. The apex court gave the impression that the counsel woke up to file the application very, very recently.
Even under the military junta, we challenged a decree that sought to penalise lawyers for challenging anything done or purported to be done under the Legal Practitioners Amendment Decree No 21 of 1994. See In Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams v. Akintunde (1995) 3 NWLR (Pt. 381) 101 @ 115.
The point that I am struggling to make is that no law empowers the Supreme Court to award costs against lawyers.
The only law that empowers a judge in Nigeria to award costs against a lawyer for delaying a case is the Administration of Criminal Justice Act. See Section 396(6) thereof. In FRN v Omoyele Sowore, the Federal High Court (per Ojukwu J.) awarded cost of N200,000 against the counsel to the state security service for delaying the treason trial of the Defendant. The counsel, a SAN, paid the cost before the case was allowed to proceed…
It is at the discretion of the court to award cost. The ultimate requirement is that such discretion must be exercised judicially and judiciously. See NNPC v. Clifco Nigeria Ltd [2011] LPELR-2022(SC).
In the above-mentioned case, the Supreme Court court was addressing the award of cost against litigants, which is allowed by the law.
But when cost is awarded against a lawyer, it can not be said that the apex court exercised its discretion judicially and judiciously as it was not anchored on any known law in Nigeria.
You may, therefore, wish to advise the Chief Justice of Nigeria to amend the Rules of the Court to empower the Justices to award costs against lawyers.
