Nigerian non-litigation lawyers who took up the Blue Silks rank have cried out to the international legal community over alleged persecution by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Mr. Kabir Akanbi.
Akanbi had petitioned the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, seeking sanctions on the lawyers over the Blue Silks rank.
The Blue Silks rank, introduced by the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, and the Nigerian Law Society, NLS, as an alternative to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, rank for non-litigation lawyers, is being opposed by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC.
Akanbi, by virtue of his position as Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, is also the Secretary of the LPPC, the body which confers the SAN rank on Nigerian lawyers.
Alleging persecution and non-adherence to the sub judice principle by Akanbi, the lawyers have forwarded petitions seeking the intervention of international legal personalities and organizations, including the Lawyers at Risk Programme of the Law Society of England and Wales; International Law Section, American Bar Association, ABA; Yasmin Sooka, a human rights lawyer and Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights, South Africa; Faith Odhiambo, President of the Law Society of Kenya, who emerged winner of the 2026 Commonwealth Lawyers Association, CLA, Rule of Law Award; as well as the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, CLA, United Kingdom.
Other international legal organizations that have been urged to intervene in the matter are International Observatory for Protection of Lawyers (Lawyers for lawyers); Lawyers Rights Watch, Canada; and International Bar Association, IBA, Human Rights Institute.
In a petition addressed to the Lawyers at Risk Programme of the Law Society of England and Wales, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, Executive Secretary of the NLS, stated that Nigerian non-litigation lawyers are being subjected to persecution and harassment by the NBA and officials of Nigeria's judicial institutions over the introduction of the Blue Silks ranks.
Parts of the petition read, "Our Blue Silks rank was intended to provide an alternative for non-litigation Nigerian lawyers. However, from the date of our introduction of the said Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (SCN), the officials of both the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria have unleashed a vicious campaign of calumny, cyberbullying and more recently malicious prosecution of myself and other officials of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
"On 6th October 2026, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria secured a disciplinary hearing against myself and 13 other lawyers at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC). This disciplinary hearing is a violation of both the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and other relevant laws of Nigeria because since November 2025, we have filed two lawsuits against the said Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Final judgments are not yet delivered in any of these two lawsuits.
"I filed several lawsuits to seek protection of non-litigation Nigerian lawyers to be allowed to enjoy the fundamental right to freedom of association which is guaranteed under Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
"The officials of the Nigerian government such as the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria has flagrantly continued to deny non-litigation Nigerian lawyers their right to freedom of association. On 27th January 2026, the Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court Abuja delivered a landmark judgment in our favour. However, the said government officials have refused to obey this judgment which has caused me to file five additional lawsuits at both the Court of Appeal and the National Industrial Court of Nigeria."
The petition urged the international legal community to intervene in the matter by asking the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, to stop the alleged persecution of 14 lawyers conferred with the Blue Silks rank.
The lawyers argued that the petition against them, forwarded to the LPDC by Akanbi, should be discontinued on the grounds that it constitutes an abuse of office, and as well as being in violation of sections 36 (1), (9) and (12) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
Blue Silks: Nigerian lawyers seek intervention of international legal community