Apart From Going On TV To Make Noise What Have You Contributed To The Legal Profession? – Wike’s Aide Blasts Femi Falana

Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Nyesom Wike has claimed that Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana lied to Nigerians on National Television.

He stated this while reacting to Falana’s submission on the Supreme Court ruling on the Rivers crisis.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, during an appearance on Channels Television, said the Supreme Court judgment on Rivers State “had nothing to do with who is the authentic Speaker of House.

However, speaking via a statement signed by him, Olayinka, said it was ridiculous for Falana to believe that only those who have handled cases in the trial courts or appellate courts are lawyers or qualified for appointment as Life Benchers.

He charged Falana to list the number of major cases he won and what he has done for the development of the legal profession that qualified him to become a SAN, apart from being an “arrangee and errand lawyer.”

Olayinka said the FCT Minister got his membership of the Body of Benchers on merit, having contributed immensely to the advancement of legal education.

He said: “Apart from going on television to make noise, what has Falana contributed to the legal profession? Even the SAN that he got, was not an afterthought? Was it not years after his mates had gotten SAN?

“As Governor of Rivers State, Wike, was instrumental to the establishment and infrastructural development of the campus of the Nigerian Law School in Port Harcourt, which is the best centre for legal education in Nigeria today.

“He also played major roles in the development of facilities at the Yenagoa campus of the Nigerian Law School by constructing a state-of-the-art 1,500-capacity hall and 200-bed male and female hostels, among other interventions.

“Now that he is the FCT Minister, he is constructing a 10-unit housing quarters for the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja. He has also provided operational vehicles to the school to improve its operation.

“The question is; what has Falana done for the legal profession? Even in Ekiti State, where he is from, he has not contributed anything.

“The Bar Center in Ado Ekiti was built by Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, while the one in Ikere Ekiti was built by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN. Also, Aare Afe Babalola has been sponsoring the Nigerian Bar Association annual lecture for years and has been assisting lawyers in Ekiti with medical treatments in his Ado Ekiti teaching hospital. What has Falana done? Nothing!

“Did Falana not fail as a politician when he went to Ekiti to contest for governor and failed woefully?”

Olayinka added, “It was on the basis of the Supreme Court judgment that Justice Emmanuel Obile of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt dismissed the suit filed by the Labour Party against the alleged detection, saying that the Supreme Court’s ruling had finalized the issue of defection.

“But Falana went on television to lie and deceive his client that the Supreme Court didn’t rule on the defection.

“The same Falana said three members of the Rivers State House of Assembly can carry out legislative functions despite the provision of Section 96 (1) of the 1999 Constitution that ‘The quorum of a House of Assembly shall be one-third of all the members of the House.”