Delta: Lawyer escapes jail over noise-making in court

A Federal High Court judge in Warri Judicial Division, Justice Okon Abang, has warned lawyers in Warri against the level of unprecedented noise-making around court premises that disrupted court proceedings last week.

A Federal High Court judge in Warri Judicial Division, Justice Okon Abang, has warned lawyers in Warri against the level of unprecedented noise-making around court premises that disrupted court proceedings last week.

During the court session and while proceedings were ongoing, some lawyers were making noises.

The presiding judge was forced to send the court registrar twice to warn the lawyers within the premises to stop making noises but to no avail.

Justice Abang, who found it difficult to continue with the proceedings, sent his police orderly to arrest anyone found making a noise on the corridor of the court despite the court registrar’s warning.

A lawyer was, therefore, arrested while others ran away.

When brought before the judge, it was discovered that he was a lawyer.

Justice Abang was disappointed, but rather than sending him to prison decided to warn him, asking him to go and sin no more.

Noise-making, while proceedings are ongoing in the courtroom, is contempt in the face of the law.

But there was a twist in the incident as the Warri branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) decided to issue a boycott order of the judge’s court rather than warning its members.

It also went further to petition the CJN.

Senior lawyers, who reacted to the issue, condemned the Warri NBA and commended the judge for not sending the erring lawyer to prison.

Some of the lawyers said it would be madness for lawyers to be making noises around the court while proceedings are ongoing.