Attorney General rubbishes ULS petition over Odoki

Aug 25, 2013

Uganda’s Attorney General Peter Nyombi has dismissed as nonsensical a petition by some members of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) seeking to suspend his membership.

By Hillary Nsambu                  

Uganda’s Attorney General Peter Nyombi has dismissed as nonsensical a petition by some members of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) seeking to suspend his membership on the ground that he had failed to properly advise the President against re-appointing retired Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki.

“I call it nonsensical because first of all the petitioners had not sought President’s view about the issue neither had they heard him complaining about my advice to him. None of them has ever come to me to find out what I could say about the issue. I can only say that the petitioners want to use the Uganda Law Society for their selfish ends,” Nyombi said on phone.

Nyombi also told The New Vision that when some executive members of the ULS called on him at his chambers recently, he had to caution them to be careful with such members of the society who are bent to use the noble society so that they could gain their own gains.

Sixteen members of the ULS who signed the petition sated that the Attorney General had failed in his statutory duties when he failed to properly advise the President against the re-appointment of Odoki.

In their three-page petition, the lawyers urged the ULS to convene an urgent extraordinary general meeting to consider suspending Nyombi’s membership from the society. They accused him of irresponsible behaviour and lack of respect to the Constitution and other laws and; as a result Ugandans and particularly the legal fraternity suffered undue embarrassment.

The petitioners also accused Nyombi of misadvising the President on the appointment of General Aronda Nyakairima, a senior UPDF officer as Minister in Charge of Uganda’s internal affairs.

The lawyers also blamed Nyombi saying he poorly handled a constitutional petition in which a lawyer, Severino Twinobusingye was awarded sh11b as instruction fees despite public outcry including that of the Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine against the exorbitant award.

The lawyers also blamed Nyombi for his unsolicited legal opinion, which they said was condemning and castigating the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, for ruling that she was not constitutionally mandated to sack the MPs expelled by the NRM party.

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