WHETHER THE ABSENCE OF A SENIOR COUNSEL WHO WOULD WANT TO HANDLE A MATTER PERSONALLY CAN BE A GROUND FOR SEEKING AN ADJOURNMENT?

 

The point to be stressed here is that the fact that a thing has been a practice does not make it a law. Besides, it is not Chief M.I. Ahamba, SAN, that handles all the cases in his Chambers but his Chambers; meaning that any lawyer in his Chambers is competent to handle any brief the Chambers has been engaged or hired to handle. 

In Madu vs. Okeke (1998) 5 NWLR (Pt.548) 159 at 162, it was held that the rule that a Counsel holding the brief of another Counsel is presumed to be properly briefed to go on with the matter and not to ask for adjournment on this basis alone applies equally to a junior Counsel who attends Court to ask for adjournment only on the ground that his senior colleague in Chambers is not around and would want to do the matter himself.

Okoh vs. Marc-Will (Nig.) Ltd, (2014) LPELR-23260(CA), Pp.9-10, paras, C-A.