Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, was on Monday shut out of the Supreme Court of Nigeria at an event to commemorate the beginning of a new legal year.
The event, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, doubled as the swearing in of a new set of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs).
Mr. Dalung, himself a lawyer, arrived the doors of the main courtroom of the Supreme Court around 10:10 am, Premium Times reported.
However, security officials who had shut out a number of senior members of the bar and journalists from entering the packed hall, politely turned back the minister.
Recounting his ordeal to some concerned bystanders, Mr. Dalung blamed himself for the situation.
“The programme has started and people are trying to say I am this or I am that but we are all lawyers, we know that once the CJN has sat down you cannot enter. You can only plead but you cannot show you are somebody here,” he said.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and governors of Sokoto and Kogi states were among dignitaries who attended the ceremony.
A former staff of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Dalung studied law at the University of Jos and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2001.
