Even Senior Advocates Are At Their Mercy” — Okutepa SAN Decries Bribery Demands In Court Registries, Court Of Appeal, Supreme Court
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, has challenged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to confront the “most dreadful and cancerous diseases” crippling Nigeria impunity and corruption as it prepares for its Annual General Conference scheduled for 23rd to 29th August 2025 in Enugu, the Coal City.
In a strongly-worded statement, Okutepa lamented that the conference’s agenda does not explicitly address these issues, despite their destructive impact on Nigeria’s governance, economy, and justice system.
“Nigeria is today suffering from lawlessness, a product of impunity and corruption. Things are done not according to law and due process, but according to the whims and caprices of those in power. Power is used not to better lives, but to impoverish them,” he said.
Okutepa decried the entrenched culture of kickbacks across public service, even in sensitive areas of government. He recounted how reporting cases to security agencies often comes with demands for illicit payments.
According to him, no sector is free from the grip of these “cancers,” citing airports, motor parks, court registries, and garages as hotbeds of corruption.
He particularly criticised the state of court registries, accusing staff including those at the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of openly demanding bribes before processing documents, harassing lawyers, and obstructing justice.
“Even Senior Advocates are at their mercy. Those granted bail still suffer at the hands of corrupt staff. This must stop. The NBA leadership must save lawyers from harassment by sanitising court registries and digitalising them,” he urged.
Okutepa called on the Attorneys-General of the Federation and States, in partnership with the NBA, to urgently tackle the rot in the justice sector, noting that corruption in the judiciary cannot be blamed solely on judicial officers.
While acknowledging that most Nigerian judicial officers are not as corrupt as perceived, he said many work under “unhygienic and traumatising conditions” that cause severe stress, often sabotaged by corrupt registry staff.
He urged the NBA to recognise and commend upright judicial officers while decisively punishing those who “pollute the stream of justice.”
On case delays, Okutepa condemned the slow pace of justice delivery, frequent adjournments, and the difficulty in enforcing judgments. He accused some lawyers of deliberately frustrating justice through frivolous applications, calling such conduct “a disgrace to the nobility of the profession.”
“The NBA must heal itself of internal haemorrhage caused by members who desecrate justice through arrogance and lawlessness. Nigerians look to lawyers as light; we must lead the fight to restore sanity in governance,” he concluded.
