Corruption In NBA : Plateau Moves To Standardize Over Charging Of Legal Fees

Yakubu Busari

The Nigeria Bar Association, Plateau State Chapter Chairman, Bar. Ralph Monye has said, he has commenced moves to standardize high rate of legal fees charge through working with the newly sworn-in committee in place.

He decried the indiscriminate charge of legal fees as a big challenge to the practice explaining the high level of corruption affecting virtually all the sectors of lives in the country.

Speaking to our correspondent at the private chamber in Jos he said the problem of ethical orientation is eating deep into the fibre of legal practice in Nigeria.

He commended the performance of the judiciary in the last 18 years of Nigeria democracy, as he said the judiciary can only interpret the law which has help in deepening the process of restructuring democracy.

Barr. Monye said ,the NBA as an institution is not leaving anything to bear in its effort to handle issues that are related to cautioning those who are not working according to the lay down policy of the practice.

He charged members to be aware that the country has rank as the most corruption country were politician are not interested in the wellbeing of their fellow citizens but keep siphoning the resources of the country for themselves and their immediate family.

“We are trying to fight corruption within the NBA so as to bring about sanity in the system by ways of doing that, whenever we receive any petition within we despatch its without delay to make shower that all the necessary committee take adequate action and we are winning that war “, he added.

Barr. Monye emphasized further,” we are bringing in ethics to bear because the problem that legal practitioners are facing is that they have failed to understand what the ethics of the profession is all about so we are now trying to sanitize that they should be ethically oriented.

“We also have a committee that is working on fees because there same to be no monitoring body so lawyers sometimes  charge all manner of monetary fees ,” he stressed.

He said, “we want to standardize to a minimum fee so that no lawyer goes beyond that and if any lawyer found charging beyond that we will be sanctioned.

He further commended Governor Simon Bako Lalong for trying to inject new live into the judicial system but stresses the need for more funding of the judicial system.