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By Iheanyi Chukwudi
Two lawyers in Enugu state on Friday threw decorum to the winds as they lifted chairs inside the courtroom to attack each other.
Customary Court of Appeal Division, Erike Obukpa town in Nsukka Local Government, where the ignoble incident took place was thrown into chaos as the two lawyers went from verbal exchanges to physical attack.
The two lawyers engaged in the disgraceful act which its video has gone viral are identified as both hail from the area.
Footage of the viral video which sparked outrage, captured a heated verbal exchange between the two lawyers over a case they came to do in court.
It showed the legal practitioners threatening each other with physical violence while disregarding pleas by the court clerks and other learned colleagues of theirs, to stop.
The duo at a point their altercation, were seen lifting and brandishing chairs close to each other's faces and were only prevented from using them to inflict bodily injuries on themselves by the quick intervention of some of their colleagues.
Also from the video, one of them was heard saying, “He is a very small boy… He is a mad man. Go and do your case."
The second lawyer warned, “Touch me again…”
“Who touched you. Look at this mad man,” the first lawyer said and was taken out of the courtroom by colleagues.
As he was leaving, the second one said, 5“Look at you. You have bleached yourself like a fool. You have bleached yourself like a woman.”
Meanwhile, people reacting to the show of shame, have decried the deplorable state of the courtroom which is clearly noticeable in the video and called on government to see 5he need to attend to it and others like it.
One said in the comment section that, "It seemed abandoned with broken furniture.
This highlighted the poor infrastructure plaguing Nigeria’s justice system."
Others who condemned the embarrassing actions of the two lawyers, said it shows a lack of professional ethics among the lawyers involved, adding that their altercation mirrored “motor park touts.”
A lawyer commented that it reflects the “hopelessness” and shameful state of the legal profession in Nigeria.
There have been calls for the Nigerian Bar Association’s national officers to address the issue and take action.
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