News Obiaks News

Good day dear readers, In appreciation to your dedication and commitment to our page we have decided to bring to you this new series titled "LAY LEGAL"  which looks into the daily life and happenings in our law courts. Our guest writer Mr Leonard Okojie is a young legal practitioner who is gifted in the act of writing immaculately and has decided to give our readers a glimpse of what happens daily within the court room. Reading this piece would have you coming back for more, as the story is specially written to have you yearning for more.

LAY - LEGAL

SCENE 1
High Court of Justice, Ida state holden at Oak City, Nilearia; court 95 presided
over by Hon. Justice L.I. Dakata. It was a dark and cloudy morning; the skies
grumbled at short intervals, a heavy downpour was imminent. Lawyers
however in pursuit of justice cum daily bread, defied the ominous
premonitions of the weather and thronged the court room. It was 8:45 am,
some groups of lawyers chatted very humorously about varying events and
occurrences; these could be classified into the group of lawyers who had
“sorted out” everything that had to do with their court business for the day and
as such could afford to just laugh away the penultimate minutes before the
court started sitting. They could also be classified into the group of lawyers
who had gathered so much experience in law practice and are hardly bothered
about what may likely go wrong with the day’s proceedings. At worst, the judge
would speak angrily at them and reluctantly grant an adjournment “for the last
time”, in all, they see no reason to be perturbed. Some other groups frantically
tried to sort out some issues with other lawyers with regard to cases they had
in court that morning, just before the court started sitting. For example, the
following ensued:
Mr Thomson: Good morning counsel, please your face looks quite familiar,

are you a lawyer in the law firm of T.Y Bushman & Co?

Sade: (sensing a bit of trouble, and managing to conceal the bold name written
on a file directly in front of her) no oo, I am currently not attached to
any chambers.
Mr Thomson: Ha! I could have sworn that you were the lady I met at that

office the other day when I came to see your Principal.

Sade: (knowing full well that eye contact with the man would give her away
maintained a bowed posture, only stealing split second glimpses) Sir,
what Principal? I just told you that I am currently not attached to any
chambers. I mean no disrespect sir, but please if you don’t mind, I

would love some quiet as I am trying to go through these examination-
in- chief questions for my case today.

Mr Thomson: (with a convinced look on his face that the young lady was
lying, he reluctantly withdraws) Ok, sincere apologies for
bothering you.

Sade: Thanks.
Mr Thomson was a shrewd individual and because he was convinced that the
lady told a lie, just some 350 seconds before the hour of 9:00am, he ‘employed’
another lawyer quite predictably of Sade’s age and call range to help him
uncover the clever-by-half disposition the young lady had put forth.
Tristan: Hello Sade, good morning.
Sade: (looks up catches the eyes of a handsome, well built, bearded guy she
drooled over all her law school days but who barely said 50 words to her
in a year and with a sheepish smile) heyyy, good morning Tristan, it’s been
ages, what are you doing in my jurisdiction? I mean sorry, it is nice to see
you, you want to sit? I mean please sit, oh it’s you, wow, I like your..., I
mean, sorry, where are you now, how’s everything?
Tristan: I’m good, what chambers are you currently attached to?
Sade: (enthusiastically) oh me? Yeah, I’m..., I’m attached to T.Y Bushman &
Co.
Tristan, who only a few seconds back was all chivalric, lived up to his snobbish
personality, got up and left. He completed the mission with dispatch; there was
nothing more he had to say to her. Sade stared in utter bewilderment as he
walked back to his seat, trying to figure out what had just happened. A part of
her reminded her that Tristan had always been a snob, but another part smelt a
rat, because he’s a snob quite alright, so why did he come to exchange
pleasantries with her? And then she realized that she don shit for church. She
buried her head in shame. What was all that for? Sade was inexperienced and
so she thought Mr Thomson had come to slam her with a court process she
would have had to respond to during the court sitting, because her Principal
had sent her to Court simply to lead a witness to adopt his written deposition

on oath and then ask for an adjournment to enable the other lawyer cross-
examine the said witness at a date when he (Principal) would be free to attend

court. Point taken, Mr Thomson actually intended to serve her a certain

motion, which would of course have had the effect of stalling the proceedings
for the day and ultimately easing her tension since she was already jittery on
how to go about her assignment. If she knew better, she was actually entitled
to cost(money) from Mr Thomson for bringing an unripe motion on a day the
matter was slated for hearing. She horridly got up and went to Mr Thomson to
apologize for her earlier behaviour and quite sincerely explained to him why
she behaved that way. Recall that we had hinted the shrewdness of Mr
Thomson; he ‘understood’ quite well and spoke very politely to Sade, telling
her not to worry and explained all that she needed to know. He even went
ahead to explain to her that he was ready to pay the cost that would arise from
the late Application. He then served her with the Application. Sade was a
beautiful girl, Mr Thomson was not about to throw away this opportunity to
get her attention.
Recall it was only 350 seconds to the hour of 9:00 am when Tristan approached
Sade; of course all of the events that followed Tristan’s pseudo-chivalry
couldn’t have comfortably taken place before the hour of 9.00 am. It was now
9:10 am; it was very uncustomary for Justice Dakata to come late to court. As a
matter of fact the honorable judge held the Chief Judge’s novel award for most
punctual judge of the state’s judiciary, which award was meritoriously
determined by poll by lawyers of the state.
Sade had since gone back to her seat a bit relieved, she still had to deal with
the fact that she had to face the judge and speak; she had barely done it before.
It was now 9:30 am; it became fairly clear that the court for that day was not
going to sit. His Lordship would ordinarily call in to inform when he wasn’t
going to be in court, today nothing was heard from him; that felt strange. At
10.00 am, it became abundantly clear that the court was not sitting; the
Registrar knew her judge too well and was convinced that he wasn’t coming for
that day. Propelled by her conviction, she called on the lawyers present in
court to come forward to take dates for their cases to be adjourned to. Sade,
now completely relieved walked over to Mr Thomson to agree on a date. Mr
Thomson being a sharp guy agreed two dates with Sade; a wig and gown date
and a red, handless gown date. While Mr Thomson flirted and Sade in
complicit respuesta, Tristan paid keen but discreet attention and suddenly
‘realized’ that he ought to have been friendlier with Sade. Illusioned by the fact
that she just agreed to go on a date with Mr Thomson, Tristan suddenly beheld

the sight of an even more beautiful and classy girl he would love to hang out
with. At the other end, Sade suddenly became very confident and snappily cut
off an intending friendly gesture from Tristan, as if to say, “Please I’m not in
your class”. Mr Thomson must be a very charming individual too, maybe
shrewdness did not quite capture all that his personality had to offer; for him
to have inspired these sudden realizations from these two young adults, or was
Tristan simply suffering from stupidity and Sade inferiority complex? I
honestly would have loved to explore, but Mr Ajayi, a sure-as-death late comer
hurried into the court room, customarily shabbily dressed, unsettled and
unkempt with a signature garlic-laden aura.
Mr Ajayi: (with a dejected look on his face) I was there, I saw it all. At about
8:45 am, I came out of my house to buy akara for breakfast when I
saw 5 men in black with big guns, they stopped his black SUV,
they shot and killed his orderlies, they kidnapped the judge.

Unified voices: which judge?
Mr Ajayi: Justice Dakata.
The court room was thrown into pandemonium as the news spread like wild
fire. They then appreciated why the learned judge had gone incommunicado.
Sade’s terror returned; being a person not accustomed to bad news, and this
wasn’t just bad news, it had a form of strange proximity to her, she briskly
exited the court premises as though the judge’s captors were coming around to
add every lawyer and court staff to their leverage. Tristan sensing that Sade was
troubled figured that he just got the opportunity to redeem his image, the girl
being at a low at that time. He wasted no time and followed her outside trying
to comfort her, and surprisingly once again, Sade was all soft and welcoming,
soothed by Tristan’s warm embrace in the cold morning, this time the rain had
begun in drizzles. Sade must really be an unstable individual you may think,
maybe! For now let us pray for the kidnapped judge. Tristan consolidated on
his gentleness and booked her a Bolt (Taxify) ride, handed her ₫2,000.00, Sade
zoomed off in the Toyota Highlander SUV and Tristan returned to the court
room with some sense of fulfillment. He however quickly realized that he
failed to pick the girl’s phone number, this downs his morale for a moment,
but he’s quickly consoled by the thought that there’s always a way to get it.

Thanks For Reading. Next Scene Comes Up
Next Week, Same Day. Peace.

AUTHOR : Mr Leonard Okojie, Esq

EDITORS
Miss Mary Inyang
Mr Sam Atoe
Miss Esther Matthew

For feedbacks and comments, contact Mr Leo Okojie on : leonardokojie177@gmail.com