SAN Rickey Tarfa: Don’t push his hot button

Flying to court comes naturally to them—these Senior Advocates of Nigeria. Whenever they feel the pulp of their silky wigs, it’s like a halo descends around them. So when a lowbrow (like you) gets their goat, they readily dive into their arsenal.

Their choice weapons range from technobabble, to crispy suits, skinheads, ashen beards, and tomes of big hard-cover collections of legal past masters like Jeremy Bentham. SANs can use money, too. Like hammering you with a N5-billion suit—for two pins. They also have this herd instinct.

Armed with all these, the elite lawyers don’t break a sweat scaring the Jesus out of you. They frightened Justice Aishat Opesanwo, and bullied the EFCC lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo weeks ago. SAN Rickey Tarfa practically shipped in a chamberful of fellow SANs to defend him against the two-count charge the commission slams him.

Tarfa seems bent on smacking every ear that tingles on hearing the N225, 000-bribe-allegation the EFCC claims he offered Justice M. Yunusa in 2014.

ALSO SEE: Judge accuses Rickey Tarfa of harassment, intimidation

It’s an allegation. All right. And Tarfa initially confirmed it: that he and friends clubbed together to raise the money for the funeral of Yunusa’s father-in-law. No matter what, you can’t accuse a SAN of doing too much for a chummy judge sitting on the counsel’s case. All the same critics say such act violates Part D of Rule 30 of the code of conduct of lawyers in Nigeria.

But SANs are smart asses.  They can weasel out of any code, and in turn overwhelm you with the fine details of fundamental rights. Tarfa had to sue fellow SAN Femi Falana, MTN, EFCC’s boss Ibrahim Magu, and everybody—except the kitchen sink—for violating his rights.

He withdrew the N5-billion suit last week, though. And his learned rationalisation might go something like: if he’d won the lesser case, his SANs-aided victory in the substantive case would have lost its bite to perceived bullying.

If you haven’t read his ceevee, you may think Tarfa’s a bullyboy of a lawyer. Nah. He’s just a higher-than-a-kite SAN on a roll. His law firm crawls with 60 lawyers and well-heeled clients in four chambers across Nigeria. And he’s got a string of wins under his gown, especially when Justice Yunusa is presiding, according to Magu.

ALSO SEE: EFCC to arraign senior advocate Tarfa for calling judge, hiding suspects

The SAN is also large-hearted. Apart from Yunusa, his beneficiaries include Chief Justice Idris Auta of the Federal High Court. Magu said Tarfa and four other SANs gave N7 million for Auta’s book launch back then.

Take it or leave, Tarfa is innocent. And trust him, he’ll tear the prosecution limb from limb as the trial goes on. He’s got a lot of backwind pushing him on: experience, 90 SANs, and a clique in the Nigeria Bar Association.

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He’s got fire, too. Just don’t stoke it.