reported<\/a>\u00a0on January 4 that a Lagos-based lawyer, Olumide Sonupe, has been hospitalised after he was said to have been detained by the police while seeking the bail of his client.<\/p>\nFalana said the NBA decided to make a case through the affected colleague to say no to brutalisation of lawyers and citizens by the police.<\/p>\n
He said the NBA demanded a full investigation of the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy the commissioner of police announced today that the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commissioner also indicated that lawyers should be prepared to be members of the committee since the police have nothing to hide.<\/p>\n
\u201cBesides the report, the NBA is also taking certain steps to file actions to protect the human rights of our colleagues to make a point that if anything of that nature happens to any lawyer, the NBA will take it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chairman of NBA, Ikeja Branch, Mr Seyi Olawunmi, also condemned the act of the divisional police officer of Gowon Estate and called for a thorough investigation that would involve the NBA.<\/p>\n
Olawunmi said the protest was not about their colleague but about seeking justice.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cIf our member has behaved in an unruly manner, let the law take its course.<\/p>\n
\u201cLawyers are not above the law and we need to press the fact that this is about an ordinary man on the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we are not coming out because it is our colleague that is involved but we are saying if you go to a police station as a Nigerian, you have a right to be treated in a civil manner that you deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olawunmi said it was wrong of the police to ask Nigerians to drop their phones before they could get access to police stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot go in there and they subject you to any form of harassment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tell you to drop your phone at the entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean if you are not doing anything at your station that is unholy, why would you, why are you asking us to drop our phones,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
NAN also reports that the Lagos branch of the NBA mobilised about 700 lawyers across the state for the protest march from the secretariat of the NBA Ikeja Branch to the headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command.<\/p>\n
Other NBA Chairmen present at the protest were: Mr Olabisi Makanjuola, Lagos NBA Chairman, Mr Emeka Ralph, Badagry NBA Chairman and Mr Wale Adegoke, NBA Ota\u00a0Branch.<\/p>\n
NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, has berated the police for inhuman treatment of lawyers and the general public. Falana, a human rights activist, stated this on Thursday in Lagos when he joined other lawyers to protest against police brutality. The Ikeja, Ikorodu, Badagry and Epe branches of the Nigerian Bar Association carried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":49987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-news","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t