The Association of Legislative and Advocacy Drafting Practitioners, ALDRAP, has filed a notice of appeal against an Abuja Federal High Court judgment which stopped the conferment of the Blue Silks rank on non-litigation lawyers.
The court, presided by Justice Omotosho, had in its judgment granted an order of perpetual injunction restraining ALDRAP from conferring the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria, SCN.
ALDRAP had introduced the Blue Silks rank as an alternative to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, title conferred on lawyers adjudged to have merited the honour.
But the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, rejected the Blue Silks rank, describing it as illegal. In the same vein, the NBA’s Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC, which is responsible for conferring the SAN title, warned that lawyers parading the Blue Silks rank risk being sanctioned for professional misconduct.
Following the threat, ALDRAP, approached an Abuja Federal High Court to protect its members’ fundamental rights, and also stop the NBA and others from interfering in matters concerning the Blue Silks rank.
The court however ruled in favour of the NBA and other respondents, and went ahead to make an order of perpetual injunction restraining the applicants – ALDRAP and its Executive Secretary, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja – from continuing to confer the Blue Silks rank.
In its notice of appeal, ALDRAP faulted the judgment, saying the judge granted an order that was not sought by any of the parties in the suit.
In a statement by its Executive Secretary, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, ALDRAP said its notice of appeal and stay of execution against the judgment is based on Odofin vs. Agu (1993) 33 NWLR pt. 229, page 350, wherein it was stated that: “The court is not a father Christmas that grants reliefs that are not sought by parties.”
ALDRAP insisted that it was wrong for the judge to grant the order when neither the applicants nor the respondents sought such a relief in their claims and counter-claims before the court.
Stating other grounds for the appeal, ALDRAP said, “We believe that learned trial judge erred in both law and fact as follows:
“The learned trial judge failed to apply similar legal reasoning as applied in the judgment of 27th January 2026 by Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar stated that both the NBA and the LPPC cannot regulate matters such as ALDRAP’s Blue Silks rank which are not contained inside the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962;
“The learned trial judge failed to consider the fact that by several letter correspondences dating back to the year 2021 and addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), LPPC, NBA, etc. the Incorporated Trustees of ALDRAP had clearly stated that the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria-SCN is the equivalent of the rank of fellowship which is conferred upon its members who satisfy the criteria.
“The learned trial judge failed to consider the combination of law and fact as submitted that Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, in addition to the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (under which the Incorporated Trustees of ALDRAP is registered in the year 2017) provides the legislative and statutory backing for the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria, SCN.”
ALDRAP said it had, in accordance with the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021, instructed its lawyers to immediately file an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
The lawyers’ association said the appeal would seek an application for a stay of execution, and ask that enforcement of the said judgment be suspended pending determination of the appeal against the said judgment that is both “legally flawed and procedurally defective”.
ALDRAP stressed that the filing of both a Notice of Appeal and a Stay of Execution provides sufficient legal protection for the association to continue conferment and use of the Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria, SCN.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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