The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to put the two lawyers defending former governor Yahaya Bello on trial for alleged professional misconduct and contempt of court.

The two lawyers, Abdulwahab Mohammed and Adeola Adedipe, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, were accused of exhibiting professional misconduct and contempt of court by undertaking to produce their client in court and failing to keep the promise made in open court.

In an application by its lead counsel, Kemi Pinheiro SAN, the EFCC accused the two senior lawyers of frustrating the arraignment of Bello by deliberately shielding him from appearing in court.

The EFCC’s lead counsel specifically asked Justice Emeka Nwite to invoke Rule 31 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for legal practitioners in the country to sanction the two lawyers and protect the sanctity and respect of the court.

Pinheiro SAN said that the two lawyers have allegedly been using their knowledge of law and procedures to frustrate the trial of the former governor in the criminal charges against him.

The EFCC counsel, who claimed to have spent 38 years as a lawyer and 19 years as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told Justice Nwite that he has never seen, in his 38 years of practice, where lawyers, as officers of the court, would deliberately denigrate the same court.

In response, Adedipe, who took time to defend himself in the matter, applied to withdraw from appearing further for the former governor in the trial.