Walter Wilson Nana
Buea, Cameroon
Over 300 lawyers of the Cameroon Bar Association have been short-listed for suspension and dismissal for gross indiscipline and refusal to pay statutory dues of the Association.
The decision to suspend and subsequently disbar the lawyers, if the need arises, this reporter gathered, was taken during a recent Bar Council meeting in Yaoundé.
The deliberations that lasted for many hours was chaired by the Bar Council President, Barrister Francis Sama Asanga.
Barrister Francis Sama Asanga, President Cameroon Bar Association
The Bar Council, it should be noted, is a disciplinary organ of the Bar Association where cases against lawyers are heard.
According to our sources, as many as 400 files against the lawyers were received and programmed for deliberation by the Bar Council.
Many of the lawyers who were summoned turned up for the disciplinary session while some simply stayed away, a source who opted for anonymity mentioned.
Meanwhile, one of the lawyers who appeared before the Council to answer charges leveled against him and who pleaded to remain anonymous, told Icameroon.com that the deliberations were stormy and uncompromising, especially against the defaulting lawyers.
“There are hundreds of lawyers, who, as members of the Bar, have quietly stayed on for several years without paying their dues. The Bar Council President and other members were tough on this category of lawyers and I seriously fear what may befall them (lawyers) in the days ahead,” the source hinted.
Our source indicated that the list containing the names and offences of the would-be disbarred and suspended lawyers endorsed at the meeting will be made public through the mass media in the days ahead, adding that lawyers who have been found guilty of swindling clients’ money are also in trouble.
According to our source, complaints against lawyers for refusing to pay rents in premises where their chambers are found, lack of professional proficiency in the handling of cases, disrespect of the Bar organs, unethical practices, lack of probity, and more, were some of the offences for which the lawyers had to respond to in front of the Bar Council.
Another source mentioned that while some of the defaulting lawyers allegedly started paying their dues at the meeting, others who had paid earlier on, turned up at the disciplinary session with receipts of bank payments to justify their claims.
Such category of lawyers was “discharged and acquitted”, and the names of those expected to be disbarred or suspended were added to the list to be published by the Bar Council.
According to the laws governing the Bar practice in Cameroon, the decisions of the Bar Council sanctioning the lawyers will be made available to the Attorney General who enforces them.
Such enforcements entail the sealing off of the chambers of the defaulting lawyers and the communication of such decisions to all the courts across the country.
However, the decision of the Bar Council could be appealed at the level of the Appeal Court.
When Barrister Sama was elected the President of Cameroon Bar Association in August 2012, in Bamenda, he promised to “restore sanity” in the house, as well as re-unite a Bar Association that had been polarised for many years.
The measures being taken are apparently in line with the promises he made upon election.
Barrister Sama defeated Buea-based Barrister-at-Law, Eta Bessong Jr. in the elections to get to the helm of Cameroon Bar Association.
