GRANDSON of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Adedamilotun Oluwapelumi Aderemi, was among the 3, 436 successful candidates who were called to the Nigerian Bar on Tuesday, in Abuja.
Adedamilotun, who along with other successful candidates of the August 2014 Bar final examinations of the Nigerian Law School, had already been called to the English Bar.
In his address at the Call to Bar ceremony, held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, the Director General (DG) of the Nigerian Law School, Olanrewaju Onadeko, said four of the successful candidates came out first class, 96 in second class upper division, 620 placed in second class lower division, while 2, 697 were in pass grade.
According to the DG, the Nigerian Law School had taken proactive measures to safeguard its campuses in Kano and Yola by installation of high perimeter walls with security barbed wire on top, adding also that arrangements had been concluded for the installation of CCTV cameras in all campuses of the school in view of the daunting challenge of insecurity in the country.
According to him, the problem of over-admission by law faculties in the country had almost been surmounted, following potent synergy between the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Council of Legal Education.
The Nigerian Law School DG charged the new wigs to adhere to the norms and ethics of the legal profession, adding also that the legal profession in Nigeria had always been known to produce eminent international jurists, scholars and legal experts all over the world, with strategic positions.
In his speech, the chairman of the Body of Benchers, Chief T. J Onomigbo Okpoko, charged the successful candidates called to Bar to adhere to the rules of professional ethics which regulated the conduct of lawyers and the conduct of law business by members of the profession.
While admonishing the new wigs to make the rules their companion, Okpoko said: “It is obligatory that the new wigs and members of the profession by their action or inaction enhance the honour of the law profession and the dignity of its members by their words and action, whether in public or private life.
He reminded the new wigs that the membership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) was compulsory for all lawyers under the Legal Practitioners Act, just as he advised them to respect the court and never to engage any judge or magistrate in hot exchange of words or engage in what may appear to be a quarrel with adjudicators or colleagues.
Meanwhile, Mrs Olukemi Aderemi, Adedamilotun’s mother, said her son’s shift to study law after graduating from the Imperial College of Science in London as a Chemist was something that runs in the family, pointing out that “her father, Late Awolowo, my late father in-law, Justice Aderoju Aderemi, my husband, Adedamola Aderemi are all lawyers, including myself.”
