The Body of Benchers on Thursday in Abuja, admitted 1,468 candidates to the Nigerian Bar as barristers and solicitors, with a charge to exhibit the highest level of professional ethics.
Performing the ceremony, Justice Walter Onnoghen, Chairman, Body of Benchers and Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) charged the new lawyers to be an embodiment of integrity and discipline.
“An area which must be of concern to you as legal practitioners is your integrity and conduct.
“As legal practitioners, you cannot close your eyes to the social, political and economic problems of our time, therefore, you have a duty to help rescue our society from pervasive lawlessness, corruption, and anti-social activities.”
Onnoghen noted that between January 2013 and July 2017, 140 petitions were filed at the registry of Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers.
According to him, out of this number, 26 lawyers were disbarred, 10 suspended, 40 were discharged, while 64 petitions are currently pending before the committee.
He stated that the committee would discipline erring legal practitioners whose conduct negated the sacrosanct standards of the profession or amounted to infamous conduct in a professional respect.
NAN