Wild jubilation has enveloped the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja following the appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari of Mr. Umar Mohammed Etsu as the Acting Solicitor General of the Federation.
Etsu is to succeed out-going Mr. Dayo Apata, SAN, who statutorily bows out on Monday, July 26 upon attaining the official retirement age of 60 years. An official handover ceremony is to be done today.
Until his appointment, the new Solicitor General of the Federation who hails from Kogi State has been the director in charge of the Directorate of the Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF) for five years, a situation that has prompted the top echelon and management of the ministry to canvass for a retention of the current winning team widely considered as meditative, proactive and effective in recording numerous government cases at the courts.
Further checks yesterday revealed that activities at the ministry have suddenly stepped following the emergence of Mr. Umar Mohammed Etsu as the new Federal Solicitor General whose contributions to the achievements of the current Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, have been adjudged phenomenal and outstanding.
It was gathered that not long after Malami assumed duties in the ministry, he expressed worry over incessant losses of government cases and commissioned a search for a new hand to take over the DPPF. The search was said to have been facilitated by the out-going Solicitor General which eventually fetched Mohammed from the Nigerian Customs Service where he was Legal Adviser. He was drafted with a charge to turn the tide immediately.
Upon his assumption on July 28, 2016, Umar Mohammed was said to have raised a crack team that was raised on a diet of team work, synergy and comradeship, driven by the policy of diligent investigation and prosecution.
It is to Etsu’s credit that shortly after his appointment as DPPF director, the tide changed dramatically and has remained so till date owing to what insiders in the ministry described as his depth, dedication and diligence anchored on servant leadership.A cross section of observers in the nation’s justice sector who commented on the current development in the ministry hailed Umar Mohammed Etsu’s appointment, explaining that the minister’s decision to recommend him for elevation was in tandem with a popular war strategy of retaining a winning team.
They expressed hope that the new Solicitor General would deploy his wide reach to achieve more.Mr. Umar Mohammed Etsu, a 1984 graduate of Law at the prestigious premier Northern university, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with over 30 years of meritorious law practice in the Federal public service was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985 and joined the Federal Ministry of Justice in 1986 as a State Counsel.