Sedu encounters a racist judge who thinks an African can’t appear in Italian court as attorney
There was drama in a Napoli court today when the Judge demanded that a Nigerian duly licensed to practice law in Italy, show her his qualifications to prove he was a lawyer. The incident happened when the Nigerian, Hilary Sedu stood up for his client at a minor’s court in the port city.
According to Sedu who is on the roll of the local lawyers’ guild, “the new honorary magistrate asked me to show her my lawyer’s permit, so I did. Either stunned or stupid, she asked me if I was a lawyer and then whether I had a law degree.”
Sedu who tries to downplay the racism in the whole incident lamented, “I’m telling you, it was no joke. Impulsive as I am, I was tempted to insult her, but I decided to put the good of the case before me because the lives of my client and her daughter depended on it.”
Continuing he said, “No, it’s not racism, just idiocy. It’s the incompetence of an administrative body that doesn’t know how to select the private components of the judicial machine.”
