Following the withdrawal of legal practitioners from representing the embattled Kano Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara, in court, he accused them of professional misconduct before the Upper Shariah Court that included extortion of funds, wrongful relationship with his wife, and deliberately misleading him in the case.
Responding on the matter, the spokesperson of the affected team of lawyers, Rabiu Shuaibu Abdullahi, told Vanguard that they are not legally in a position to reveal what happened between them and their client but however they advised him to take his case to the proper channel within two weeks, or they will take action against him.
“We are legal practitioners and are guided by professional ethics, so there is no way we can reveal what happened between our client and us to the public.
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“However, we call on our client Sheikh Abduljabbar to report the allegations he is having against us, which he mentioned to the court this morning to the proper authority so that we can be quizzed for violating professional ethics.
“If by two weeks he fails to do that, we will be forced to take the necessary action to protect our image and integrity,” Shuaibu told Vanguard.
This conflict became public when the team of lawyers represented by Haruna Magashi told the Upper Shariah Court, Kofar Kudu, in Kano, presided over by Ibrahim Sarki Yola on Thursday that they are withdrawing from representing the cleric and he is entitled to a lawyer and could get one. He submitted the withdrawal letter to the court and left.
Magashi told journalists that following a misunderstanding between the cleric, who is currently in the Kano Correctional Centre, and five members of the legal team, they have concluded that the only option left for them was to withdraw from representing him in the case.
In the last court sitting on 2nd September, the court had ordered that Psychiatric doctors evaluate the cleric’s mental and physical health to ascertain his mental and physical condition after he refused to respond to charges read against him by the court. The report of the medical examination was read before the court that he is sound and healthy.
Also addressing journalists at the end of the court session, the spokesperson of the government’s legal team said that the court had confirmed the cleric to be healthy, and the result was presented. “However, his lawyers have withdrawn from representing him, so the court has given him two weeks to get another lawyer to represent him”, he stated.
