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MRA inducts Council of Legal Education into FoI ‘Hall of Shame’

By Margaret Mwantok
16 October 2018   |   3:23 am
The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Council of Legal Education (CLE) into its “Freedom of Information (FoI) Hall of Shame.” It accused the institution of consistently failing to comply with its duties and obligation under the FoI Act, 2011. A statement signed by a programme officer at MRA, Mr. John Gbadamosi, said: “It…

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Council of Legal Education (CLE) into its “Freedom of Information (FoI) Hall of Shame.

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has inducted the Council of Legal Education (CLE) into its “Freedom of Information (FoI) Hall of Shame.”

It accused the institution of consistently failing to comply with its duties and obligation under the FoI Act, 2011.

A statement signed by a programme officer at MRA, Mr. John Gbadamosi, said: “It is one of the ironies of the Nigerian condition that an institution that oversees the training of budding lawyers and issues certificates to those adjudged qualified to be admitted into the legal profession in Nigeria has established itself as a serial law-breaker when it should be a fierce advocate and defender of the rule of law.

“It is difficult to imagine how the Council of Legal Education while it carries a moral burden of disobeying the law over the years, can have the credibility to instil in young lawyers the concept of the supremacy of the law.

It is also not difficult to see why much of the legal profession is in a mess if the institution that oversees their training and induction into the profession has no regard for the law.”

Gbadamosi, who stated that since the enactment of the FoI Act in 2011, CLE has only submitted one yearly report to the Attorney-General of the Federation on its implementation of the Act as required by Section 29 (1) of the Act, said that the Council had continued to violate other provisions of the Act with impunity, adding that even the office of the attorney-general has no record of compliance by the Council with the obligation to designate an appropriate official for this role.

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