- As lawyer urges Council of Legal Education not to accredit Nigeria Police Academy Wudil
The Chairman, Council of Legal Education has been urged to withhold assent to the admission request of the Nigeria Police Academy Wudi, Kano State following the alleged disdain and disregard with which the police authorities treat lawyers in the service.
In the letter which was copied to the Director General of the Nigerian Law School, the Police Service Commission and the Nigeria Police, Ezekwesiri Nwauwa of Duke Royal Chambers, an Imo State-based lawyer noted that although the Nigeria Police Force accords professional recognition to Policemen who are Accountants, Medical Doctors, Engineers and Pilots, and have since elevated them in ranking to the senior officer cadre, many lawyers in the police some of who are over ten years post-call, are still within the grade of rank and file.
A part of the letter titled: A PASSIONATE PLEA TO WITHHOLD YOUR ASSENT TO THE REQUEST FROM POLICE AUTHORITIES REGARDING ACCREDITATION OF THEIR STUDENTS INTO THE NIGERIAN LAW SCHOOL reads:
“With utmost sense of indignation, I beseech thee never to allow accreditation of the Law faculty of the Nigeria Police Academy, Wudi, Kano State into your list of accredited schools; as the Nigeria Police Academy is an adjunct of the Nigeria Polic force who have by their own showing, ridiculed and continued to debase the legal profession, especially Policemen who are lawyers in their midst for progressing in their chosen career over the years of service with them.
“You may wish to know sir, that the Police authorities have made the lawyers in their midst an object of ridicule, humiliation and scorn without any justification whatsoever. These crop of lawyers most of whom have remained within and below the stagnated rank of level 8 in the Public Service, have become so dejected and denigrated, and this is nothing but an affront and indictment on the regulators of the legal profession.
“I have been following up the tide for many years now and I realized that about eighty (80) percent of the lawyers working as Legal Officers for the Nigeria Police Force all over the federation, some of whom are over ten years post-call, are still within the grade of rank and file in the Nigeria Police Force (less than grade 8), and these qualified legal practitioners keep announcing appearances in Courts on behalf of the Police Force as Constables, Corporals, Sergeants and Inspectors; and the Police authorities have continued to suffer them to bear miserable ranks equivalent of casual labourers, cleaners, and messengers in the Public Service ranking, despite several demands for upgrade and proper elevation into the senior rank cadre deserving of professionals; whereas they are abusing o rather exploiting them professionally.
“More painfully on the part of Police lawyers is the fact that the Nigeria Police Force have since accorded professional recognition to Policemen who are Accountants, Medical Doctors, Engineers and Pilots, and have since elevated them in ranking to the senior officer cadre without much ado, stating that these ones are PROFESSIONALS.
“As a lawyer, one begins to wonder, what on earth has made the Police to exclude lawyers working amongst them from the list of professionals, despite the clear inclusion/Provision of Sec. 18 (9) of the Police Act, 2020 which states unequivocally that LAW amongst others is a PROFESSION and that the lawyers should be employed to function and use their professional competence to advance the aims and objectives of the Police.
“There are so many statutory provisions in this wise backing the law profession to be accorded its due placement in the Nigeria Police and even Public Service structure, yet the Police authorities (Police Service Commission) and (Inspector General of Police) have continually from time immemorial till date battered and ridiculed lawyers working with them, and to make them retire with miserable ranks, whi1e other professionals in the Police are accorded due ranking/elevation, as soon as they acquire their professional certificate/qualification.
“Many lawyers I have met in Court (both Trial and Appellate Courts) in the course of litigation, are all junior ranks with many years post call for that matter, representing the Police in civil lawsuits and instituting criminal proceedings, yet announce appearance as Corporals, Constables and Sergeants for which gets me embarrassed beyond words, just as the Judges in the Courts are usually embarrassed and ashamed for the Police; and these our colleagues are unable to react, speak out for themselves or even challenge the authorities for fear of being victimized and perhaps fear of summary dismissal that may dent their records; wherefore, I deem it fit to expose this inequity, inequality and workplace conspiratorial discrimination to bring the noble legal profession to disrepute and ridicule by the Nigeria Police who are supposed to be exemplary in character.
“It will interest you to know Sir, that I have also done cases with certain security agencies in the Courts such as NDLEA, NSCDC, CJSTOMS, FRSC, SSS, NIS and others of the same Federal Government of Nigeria, yet I have never seen any of their legal officers in the court with the nomenclature of rank and file, or announcing appearance in Court as a junior rank.
“Why will Nigeria Police, the front line and foremost LAW enforcement and security agency, be the one to ridicule a profession that is pivotal and central to its core mandate?
” I submit that this organization, the Nigeria Police Force has no regard for lawyers, even its own lawyers (legal officers). A situation where its own attorneys-at-law are treated with scorn, disdain and ridicule, how can the lawyers therein be watchdogs against human rights abuses inherent within the force? The Nigeria Police Force have been arbitrarily unfair to our fellow learned colleagues working amongst them, hence they do not deserve a quota or accreditation to send their offspring to be accepted Into the Nigerian Law School, as they have no value for Barristers-at-law. Why should the Council of Legal Education patronize them with accreditation when they have a gruesome disregard for this profession and the barristers-at-law produces?
“Honourable Chairman Sir, the way Pollce treats lawyers working with them is grossly antithetical to any request made by them to be allowed to admit their students into the Nigerian Law School…”
