Last Wednesday, when prominent Nigerian
lawyer, Rickey Tarfa, was arraigned before
a Lagos High Court on charges of bribing
a judge, at least 90 fellow lawyers who, like him,
are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), turned up
to defend him. It took the presiding judge close
to one hour to record the long list of lawyers
who had volunteered as Mr. Tarfa’s defense
team. On the side of the prosecution stood a
young lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo. In a previous
appearance in a fundamental rights case filed by
Mr. Tarfa before Justice Idris, Mr. Oyedepo had
sarcastically quipped, “We hope 34 senior
advocates will one day appear pro bono to join
the EFCC to prosecute an ex-governor charged
with stealing billions of naira.

Last Wednesday, Mr. Tarfa entered a plea of not
guilty to a 2-count charge of obstruction of
justice and corruption of a judge. His lawyers,
led by Adeniyi Akintola, argued for his bail, which
was opposed by the EFCC counsel. In his ruling
to grant bail to Mr. Tarfa, Justice Opesanwo
stated that the number of lawyers mobilized for
his defense seemed designed to intimidate the
court. At the end of the proceedings, Mr. Tarfa
beamed with smiles as he thanked his
colleagues. He also urged them to turn up en
masse at the Federal High Court on Friday.
But yesterday’s court session saw a twist to the
case. The apparent gang up of SANs and the
leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
against the EFCC seemed to have angered many
lawyers. On Thursday, a well known human
rights advocate and lawyer, Femi Falana, himself
a SAN, led scores of lawyers who trooped to the
EFCC office in Ikoyi, Lagos to distance
themselves from the “celebration of criminality
by some senior lawyers.” The group of concerned
lawyers expressed solidarity with the EFCC in its
task to rid the Nigerian society, including the
legal profession, of corrupt elements.
EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, thanked the
lawyers for coming out to be counted at a time
that the powerful forces of corruption were
fighting back in the country.
In response to Mr. Tarfa’s N2.5 billion suit
against the EFCC, the anti-corruption agency
filed a detailed affidavit at the Federal High
Court. The affidavit alleged that Mr. Tarfa had
always bribed judges. The EFCC disclosed that
Mr. Tarfa had in January 2014 transferred a
bribe of N225, 000 to Justice Yunusa. In
addition, the agency alleged that Mr. Tarfa had
in 2006 collected $500,000 from one of his
clients ostensibly to “the court and EFCC
officials.” In addition, Mr. Tarfa and four other
SANs allegedly “donated” N7 million to launch a
book written in honor of Justice Ibrahim Auta,
Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
The EFCC’s affidavit also unveiled the call logs
between Justice Yunusa and Mr. Tarfa. The
document showed that the two men exchanged
regular phone conversations and text messages
while the cases filed by Mr. Tarfa against the
EFCC were pending before the judge. It also
revealed that even junior lawyers in Mr. Tarfa's
law office often sent text messages to the chief
registrar of the court to assign their cases to
Justice Yunusa. According to the EFCC, Mr.
Tarfa won all such cases heard by Justice
Yunusa on the basis of bribery and corruption.
The affidavit caused ripples in legal circles. Many
lawyers began to taunt the large team of SANs
who had appeared for Mr. Tarfa. Many of those
pro-Tarfa lawyers were so embarrassed that
only four of the 90 SANs showed up in court
yesterday. And as soon as one of the four SANs
found out about the EFCC’s affidavit, he quietly
left the court.
Some of the SANs told SaharaReporters that
they were ill informed when they appeared for
Mr. Tarfa, whom they had seen as a victim of
EFCC intimidation. “We were not aware that the
EFCC had such watertight evidence of possible
acts of corruption against Tarfa,” one of them
stated. Several of the pro-Tarfa lawyers said
they were in court to protest the manner of his
arrest in the court premises.
A move by the NBA’s national executive
committee to pass a resolution in support of Mr.
Tarfa failed. The group met in Jos, the capital of
Plateau State, from Wednesday to Thursday. At
the meeting, NBA President, Austin Alegbe, and
many other SANs had condemned the EFCC. But
SaharaReporters learned that a former Attorney-
General of Lagos State, Hairat Balogun, warned
her colleagues against defending members of the
NBA who have exposed the legal profession to
ridicule. Some of the junior lawyers at the
meeting also reportedly expressed concern that
many of the SANs had been mentioned as
participants in the criminal habit of bribing
judges.
Mr. Tarfa admitted that he gave the sum of
N225, 000 to Justice Yunusa, but claimed that
the money was not a bribe but a “gift” to help
out with a funeral of the judge’s in-law. But the
EFCC’s lawyer, W. K. Shittu, described Mr.
Tarfa’s claim as an afterthought. He wondered
whether Mr. Tarfa was not aware of Order 3 of
the code of conduct for judicial officers that bars
judges from asking for or accepting any gift or
reward in the course of performing their official
duties. He added that the EFCC has evidence of
large sums of money that Mr. Tarfa gave to a
few other judges and that the agency’s
investigation was ongoing.
Justice Idris, who had refused to stop the EFCC
from arraigning Mr. Tarfa last week, is scheduled
to deliver his judgment on February 29, 2016.
http://saharareporters.com/2016/02/20/efcc’s-prosecution-rickey-tarfa-exposes-crisis-bribery-judiciary

Sad.

That those that should help uphold laws,are those helping to destroy it.

These SAN's, have severally being accused of being the problems with our Legal System,hence the push by some to have the SAN-ship scrapped.

This man should be prosecuted,jailed and used as an example to other corrupt lawyers.

And yes he should be De-barred too.

Efcc at it again

Most SANs are corrupt. They win cases not because they are brilliant or know the law, but simply because they are able to buy the judges.

This ricky tarfa's cases is going to expose so many ills in Nigeria's legal system

Almost all lawyers in Nigeria are corrupt

When buhari Said that the judiciary was his main problem. A lot of people called him tyrant, can you now see what's happening in the judiciary. ...no wonder those that earlier went to court with armed thugs to beat up a judge are the ones now praising the judiciary

very interesting,thought it was a joke when informed lawyers are to be called out a court boycott over tafa's/efcc on going tussle.and i did asked"wetin concern agbero with overload'.

if this report is true,im indeed proud of the ex lagos AG,HAIRAT BALOGUN and the junior lawyers.and of course .we want a bar and bench where only merit arguments in the courtroom carries the day.