By Philip Yatai
THE COUNCIL of Legal Education (CLE) has described Mr Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as the greatest contributor to the growth of the legal profession in Nigeria.
Chairman of the council, Chief Emeka Ngige, stated this on Monday at the inauguration of the construction of 10-unit housing quarters for the Nigerian Law school, Bwari, Abuja, by the FCT Administration.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Wike also handed over seven operational vehicles to the school to improve on its logistics.
Ngige said that the contribution of the minister to the legal profession, particularly in infrastructural development was unprecedented.
He recalled that when Wike was the governor of Rivers, the Council of Legal Education witnessed an unprecedented infrastructural development of the Nigerian Law School.
Ngige explained that the interventions included the construction of the state of the art 1,500 multiple hall and 200-bed male and female hostels at the Nigerian Law School, Yenagoa.
The chairman added that Wike equally constructed the Port Harcourt Campus of the Nigerian Law School, which he described as the best centre for legal education in Nigeria.
Other contributions, according to Ngige, included the ongoing construction of the housing scheme of the judges and justices and the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal.
Also being constructed, he said, was the Office Annex for the Body of Benchers among others.
“History will record what each of us has done, or is doing for the legal profession, for those of us who are lawyers.
“History will record your excellency, Wike, as the greatest contributor to the growth of the legal profession in Nigeria, particularly in the area of infrastructural development,” he said.
Ngige also said that security at the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, has significantly improved under the Wike-led FCT Administration.
He called on other lawyers in influential positions to emulate Wike’s exemplary contribution to the growth and development of the legal profession.
The chairman also appealed to the federal and the Lagos State governments to come to the aid of academic and administrative staff of the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.
He said that 20 of the staff and their families were thrown out of their official residences in Lagos, following the execution of a High Court judgement delivered in 2011.
The chairman said that based on the judgement, the property no longer belongs to the Council of Legal Education.
Similarly, the chairman, Body of Benchers, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, equally said that history would write Wike’s name in gold at the appropriate time for his contribution to the legal profession.
Awomolo said that the accommodation, when completed, would go a long way in providing a conducive environment for the academic and administrative staff of the Nigerian Law School, Bwari. (NAN)
