An Enugu State-based rights group, the Civil Rights Realisation & Advancement Network (CRRAN), has condemned the directive of the Enugu State Chief Judge making it mandatory for lawyers to attach their tax clearance certificate in all the processes filed in the court before they can be entertained. The group in a petition to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and chairman National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, described such directive as "illegal and a violation of the legal practitioners act and limiting access to justice".
Aggrieved Nigerians on the way to bury their dead in Benue
In August 2018, legal practitioners faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s position that the rule of law would promptly be relegated to the backburner whenever national security was threatened.
While delivering a keynote address at the beginning of the 58th annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), on August 26, 2018, Buhari irritated many lawyers, and indeed Nigerians with his government’s view of the rule of law and its application.
“The rule of law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest. Our apex court has had cause to adopt a position on this issue in this regard, and it is now a matter of judicial recognition that where national security and public interest are threatened, or there is a likelihood of their being threatened, the individual rights of those allegedly responsible must take second place, in favour of the greater good of society,” Buhari said.