By Bassey Udo
The last may not have been heard of the recent face-off between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and a young naval officer, Lt. A. M. Yerima, over a disputed land in Abuja, as a lawyer has petitioned The Chief Justice of Federation to demand the Minister’s immediate suspension from the Body of Benchers for alleged dishonourable public conduct.
Wike had gone to Gaduwa District, a suburb within the FCT, to enforce a stop work order by the FCT Administration over a disputed parcel of land said to have been allocated for use as recreation parks, but allegedly confiscated illegally by a former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, for private development.
Some say the land was originally allocated in 2022 to Santos Estate Ltd., but Wike and his aides claimed a change in the allocation of the land to the retired military officer did not follow due process and was not properly approved, and therefore had no official documents to authenticate its ownership.
Reports said after several demands from the FCTA to the former Naval Chief to come forward with the relevant documents to authenticate his claim to the ownership of the land failed, an order was issued directing the cessation of further development on the land.
It was gathered that Wike’s visit to the disputed land was to personally enforce the stop work order from the Ministry.
However, on arrival at the entrance of the land, he and his entourage were denied access to the place by some naval personnel on guard duty led by a young officer, Lt. Yerima.
When the Minister insisted on accessing the place in the company of FCT Ministry officials, a heated argument ensued, as Yerima and the other armed men on guard resisted, saying they were acting on orders from their superiors to deny anyone entrance.
The argument degenerated later into a fierce confrontation, resulting in the Minister at one point angrily assaulting the young army officer verbally by calling him a “fool”, to which the officer responded calmly, saying: “I’m not a fool. I am a commissioned officer with integrity.”
Since then, there has been a backlash over the encounter, which went viral over the social media, with many Nigerians condemning the Minister of not conducting him with the level of comportment and decorum expected of a public officer of his standing.
Not a few have condemned the Minister for calling the young officer in full military uniform a fool, saying by so doing he was not only insulting the military establishment, but also the entire Nigerian populace.
While some have called President Bola Tinubu to sanction Wike, by removing him from office, others have asked the Ethic and Regulatory body of the legal profession to intervene with severe sanctions, while others have called on the Minister to tender an unreserved public apology for his uncouth behaviour.
The latest of the public outrage against the Minister was by an Abuja based legal practitioner, Bob James Esq. of Bob James & Co. who fired a petition No. BJ/175/2025 dated November 17, 2025 to the Chief Justice of Nigeria at the Supreme Court, Abuja asking him to take drastic punitive measures against Wike, by suspending him from the Body of Benchers for alleged dishonourable public conduct.
In his petition, Barrister James recalled how Wike, a lawyer and member of the Bar, on November 11, 2025 publicly engaged a young military officer in an open verbal confrontation in which a viral video footage of the encounter showed him repeatedly calling the young officer a fool.
Copies of the petition were sent to the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
For the lawyer, what makes the alleged ugly scenario troubling to public sensibilities was the fact that Wile was not just a senior lawyer, but member of the Body of Benchers known to not only be responsible for the formal call to bar of new lawyers, but expected to maintain the highest standards in the profession by sanctioning lawyers who engage in public misconduct.
The Body of Benchers, the petitioner explained, in line with the provisions of Section 4(1)9e) of the Legal Practitioners Act, are obliged to only call a new lawyer to the Bar if he or she satisfies the Benchers that he or she is of good character.
As custodians of the highest level of public decorum and decency, he pointed out, Benchers, as lawyers, cannot, in the least be found wanting in the public conduct.
“What Mr Wike has done is unparalleled. There is no precedent in the history of the legal profession in Nigeria of a Bencher publicly deploying vulgar language or the kind of aggression associated with motor park people”, Barrister James said.
Decency and decorum in the use of language, he pointed out, is one of the minimum character requirements of the legal profession, whether in the court, the course of practice and even in normal day to day activities.
On the impact of Wike’s alleged misbehaviour on the legal profession, Barrister James noted that new lawyers to be called to Bar the next time and see Wike seated among the Body of Benchers may be sermonizing about the character and morals as the hallmarks of the profession and dismiss every member of the Body of Benchers as a bunch of pranksters, if nothing is done to sanction Wike.
“If the new wigs are being told that one of the principal duties of Benchers is to discipline erring lawyer, they would just his and say, “except the erring lawyer is a Wike”, he said.
While calling for a full investigation into the circumstances that led Wike to call a military officer a fool in public, Barrister James said this was mandatory as a duty to restore the integrity of the Body of Benchers in particular and the legal profession as a whole.
He said if the investigating body determines that Wike indeed used the foul language he is quoted to have used in public against the military officer, the petitioner said it would have confirmed that he was not a fit and proper person to sit a member of the Body of Benchers.
Meanwhile, pending the investigation of his petition, Barrister James called for Wike’s immediate suspension from the Body of Benchers to avoid him continuing to expose the reputation and integrity of the body to disrepute.
