Lawyers in Nigeria have begun a two-day boycott of court proceedings.
The Nigerian Bar Association says the protest is over the “failure of the government to comply with court orders and the violation of human rights”.
Association President Lanke Odogiyon said there was a disregard for the rule of law, reminiscent of when Nigeria was under military dictatorship.
The government had urged the lawyers not to observe the boycott, but failed to get a court order to stop them.
The Bar Association said it wanted to demonstrate what would happen if the justice system in Nigeria ceased to function.
Political battles
The lawyers say national and state governments routinely ignore court orders they do not like.
“The problem of disobedience towards court orders by members of the executive arm at all tiers of government… which was prevalent during the military dictatorship, has reared its ugly head under the present democratic dispensation,” Mr Odogiyon said.
He said the problem was not just limited to disobeying court orders.
Every day, he said, defenceless citizens were shot dead by members of the security services and law enforcement agencies.
The government disputes all this and has called on Nigerian lawyers to ignore the boycott.
The BBC’s Alex Last in Lagos says the protest is a public display of dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in Nigeria.
He says a further concern is that political battles in Nigeria are often fought in court, and with general elections due in 2007, lawyers want to know that judgements will be obeyed.