'Unbecoming' By Adesina Ogunlana

I was at an Ikeja High Court, last week Thursday. Precisely Honourable Justice Kayode Ogunmekan’s court and I was disturbed the way the proceedings in a particular matter went.


It was a criminal matter and the prosecutor or the stand-in-prosecutor was a young state counsel. Given the very weak and untenable answers the barrister gave to the many sharp questions of the judge (obviously irritated by the apparent sloppiness of the prosecutor), it is correct to say, that the prosecutor was just “fumbling and wombling” through his work.


Well, many defence counsel have come to know that the trade mark of the prosecutors from the office of Director of Public Prosecution, Lagos State is to ensure that Justice proceeds at snail speed.


They almost always have problems producing their witness as at when due or at all. Yet they vigorously and automatically oppose the grant of bail or any thing that can ensure freedom for accused persons. I may be wrong but I think that the “normal” state counsel prosecutor sees an accused person as a yet to be convicted convict.


Sadly, most judges handling criminal cases indulge these state counsel all manners of latitude. A defence counsel may combine the erudition of a Cicero with the sagacity of a Denning and on top of it join the forcefulness of a Gani Fawehinmi yet what he hears at the end of the day is “Matter is hereby adjourned till xyz 2011 to enable the prosecution call its witness.”


One of the rare exceptions on the Bench to the often bewildering entertainment of poor and lazy prosecution from the D.P.P’s office is Justice Kayode Ogunmekan. She is one judge who does not allow state counsel feel that they can say or do as they like in her court and get away with it.


In fact, I have learnt that many of them in the office of the D.P.P. hate to be sent to the Kayode Ogunmekan’s court for prosecution, claiming that they will suffer persecution there.


However with due respect to the Honourable Judge, I must beg to disagree with the white-wash his lordship gave the affected state counsel on 23rd of June 2011. It was unnecessary and unbecoming.


At least twice, I heard the honourable judge shouting at the barrister to the hearing of all (and there were about fifteen lawyers and twenty five litigants) to “shut up.” At a point the infuriated judge, again raised her voice to reprimand the lawyer “Can’t you use your common sense?” It was as if the lawyer was a naughty kindergarten kid being ticked off by a school mistress.


I am sure all the lawyers there in court were very embarrassed. This is because, a judge we all know should be in control of her temper and by extension her tongue and should not be rude and abusive to counsel, for by so doing, the dignity, nay nobility of the high office of judge is seriously lowered and very open to debasement from the involved counsel who could be irked or provoked to give “tit for tat” to the judge, turning every thing pronto into “bolekaja” or “roforofo fight.”


I am sure even new wigs have heard the story of the abusive judge who got more than he bargained from a counsel, gifted with the ability of a quick and deadly riposte.


The judge had reportedly treated the submission of counsel with scorn by saying “you know all you’ve been saying has been entering through the right ear and going out through the left.” A very sarcastic way, of scouring the lawyer that his submissions were of no persuasive effect on the judge, futile and a waste of time.


No sooner had the judge landed, than the lawyer soared to his own unforgettable acme of insult. You know what he said? This was it: “I am not surprised that my words come through one ear and go out of the other, there is nothing in between to stop them!”


Fortunately in the matter at the Kayode-Ogunmekan’s court, the lawyer was the perfect gentleman. He was humble, he was meek. The angrier the judge got, the gentler he became.


As the rain of umbrage fell heavily on him, he hid himself under the umbrella of politeness and long suffering and in the long run earned the admiration of us his colleagues - so graceful he was under the withering fire of a badly annoyed judge.


Later some of us left the court and discussed the incident. I was aghast to learn that Honourable Justice Bisi Akinlade, ‘Sister Bisi’, to me, had allegedly also fallen into the interesting habit of abusing lawyers, in court.


When I expressed shock and disbelief, one of my discussants swore to Heaven that he heard ‘Sister Bisi’ telling a lawyer appearing before her to “shut up and jump out of my sight.”


I doubted his story and still doubt it. Except he was referring to another Bisi Akinlade J. The only Akinlade J. I know in the Lagos State Judiciary, was formerly of the office of the Public Defender (OPD) as Boss. Then I knew her as one very pleasant, warm, courteous and adorable “Egbon.”


So it can’t be the same ‘Sister Bisi’ who as judge would be so annoyed in court as to throw abuses at counsel the way reported or at all.


Trust me, when I see my sister, I will find out and I am sure my informant would be proved wrong.