Former Nigerian Bar Association President, Jeseph Daudu, a senior advocate of Nigeria, on Friday in Abuja threw his weight behind the deployment of the military in the conduct of the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria.

Speaking at an event held at his chambers in Abuja in honour of 2015 Externship Programme for students of the Nigerian Law School posted to his law offices in Abuja, Kaduna and Zaria, Mr. Daudu noted that the military are not being deployed to participate in the election but to protect sensitive materials used in the conduct of elections.

Joseph Daudu: backs troops deployment for polls

“The military are not deployed to participate, however, because there are certain sensitive election materials to be protected, they would be available especially in this era of Boko Haram. It is their duty to assist in keeping internal security. However, they won’t be at polling booths to whip people into lines like the members of the Nigeria Police Force or the Civil Defence Corp, but they, the military, should be available for immediate deployment”

The senior advocate of Nigeria also took a swipe at those calling for the Chairman of the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega, to proceed on terminal leave and observed that Jega’s tenure expires on the 30th of June by which time he would have finished conducting the 2015 elections.

He added that Jega’s office is not such that the occupant should go on terminal leave at the dawn of a scheduled general election. According to the former NBA President, “it is a matter of wishful thinking to wish that Jega will go at a time like this”.

He further expressed displeasure over the recent strike action embarked upon by members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, which led to the shutting down of all courts across the nation at a time when many Nigerian politicians were challenging the conduct of primary elections and nomination of candidates in their respective parties and noted that the workers’ body was created to protect the interest of the worker in the nation’s judiciary and wondered why the body resorted to fighting for its employer rather than the interests of its membership.

“JUSUN had no business fighting for the judiciary. That trade union was registered to fight for the rights of judiciary workers but they are now advancing the interest of their employers in ways and manner that were counter productive by shutting down the courts. You don’t pursue the enforcement of court orders by shutting down the courts nationwide”

He added that there was nothing in the statutes that said that appropriated funds should be handed over to the National Judicial Council for onward distribution to the heads of the various courts as courts do not have public procurement departments and wondered at how these courts can now embark on awarding contracts and so an.

At the event which marked the passing out ceremony of the 2015 Externship Programme for students of the Nigerian Law School posted to his law offices, the law students were called upon by another senior advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Akin Kehinde, who presented a paper on Trial Law and Advocacy, to do everything possible to develop good writing skills, especially in times like this, when every application before the court must be accompanied with a written address and where a lawyer’s brief is his or her major weapon in litigations.