The President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, on Tuesday, declined to participate in the call to bar ceremony presided over by the Chairman, Body of Benchers, Wole Olanipekun, SAN.
In a statement, the NBA president said to do so would be to endorse, celebrate or condone a practice that he considered unwholesome and unprofessional, by virtue of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007.
The NBA president’s action came two days after he wrote a letter to Olanipekun asking him to step aside and not preside over the call to bar ceremony.
He cited allegations of professional misconduct against Olanipekun in the wake of the scandalous email by a former partner in his firm, Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde to SAIPEM, an expatriate company claiming that the senior lawyer uses his office as BoB chairman to influence judges and get favorable judgments for his clients.
According to the NBA, Olanipekun’s partner, Ogunde, sent an email to Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd to solicit a brief, after the Rivers State Government preferred charges against the company over allegations of $130 million fraud.
Though the firm of Henry Ajumogobia, SAN, was already defending the company, Ogunde allegedly told the management to consider hiring Olanipekun & Co to take over the case.
NBA noted that Ogunde had in the said email, claimed that her principal, Olanipekun, has more “influence” with judges across all courts.
In his statement, the NBA President detailed what had transpired at Monday’s meeting of the Body of Benchers.
“At the meeting of the BoB held on 5 December 2022, I drew the attention of the Chairman to my letter and called for deliberations on same since it directly impacts on the propriety of the Chairman presiding over the Call to Bar ceremony, but this was not done nor were the hard copies of the letter distributed to the Benchers.
“The meeting of the BoB was adjourned to January 2023, on a date to be fixed by the Chairman. In the circumstances, therefore, having regard to my firm persuasion that the matters raised in my letter should have led the BoB to ask the Chairman to recuse himself in the interest of safeguarding the integrity of the Legal Profession, I am in good conscience unable to attend and participate in the Call to Bar Ceremony.
“The NBA under my leadership remains committed to the protection of the integrity of the Bench and the Bar and will not shirk that responsibility.”
“Although Olanipekun had disassociated himself from the action of Ms Ogunde, and regretted the fact that it emanated from a partner in his law firm, we call on the LPCD to initiate disciplinary process against Ogunde over the action”
The BoB is a statutory body that is responsible for the formal call to the Bar of persons seeking to become legal practitioners as well as disciplining of erring lawyers.
Members of the body are categorised into Benchers and Life Benchers.
But at the event on Tuesday, Olanipekun presided over the ceremony in defiance of the protest of the NBA president.
We recall that the LPDC under the BoB had exonerated Olanipekun of the allegation although it did not reveal whether the verdict was as a result of an independent probe.
Responding to that in his letter on December 4, Maikyau stated that while he did not contend the correctness or otherwise of the committee’s decision, “Suffice it, however, to say that the public reactions that trailed the emergence of that email and the decision exonerating the law firm would give a bit of insight into how this Body is presently being viewed by some members of the profession and the Nigerian public.”
At the event monitored on Tuesday, the Director General of the Nigerian Law School, Isa Chiroma, announced that 4711 applicants qualified to be enlisted into the legal profession.
Olanipekun also stood up, admitted all the applicants, and ordered them to put on their wigs.
“By the powers conferred on me as Chairman of the Body of Benchers, I hereby admit each and every one of you into the bar as barristers.”
Olanipekun, apparently replying to his critics, said at the ceremony that every life bencher has an idea of when he or she would assume his office as Chairman of the BoB
He said the term of the BoB chairman is one year.
“At the end of the tenure of the Chairman, the Vice Chairman automatically transits into the position of Chairman. By the grace of God, come March 21, 2023, Justice Mary Odili will assume the position as Chairman of the body while we transit into the committee of elders as past chairmen,” he said.
The Body of Benchers was inaugurated on November 27, 1971.
It has been a potent body that is responsible for the regulation of the legal profession; calling lawyers to the Bar, maintaining discipline at the Bar and all other ancillary duties are what the body is responsible for.
It is made up of the very best in the profession. And that is why the law – Legal Practitioners Act – says, ‘men of distinction.’ Not just of distinction, but of the highest distinction in the legal profession.
It is a potpourri of all that is good, without the mixture or admixture of any that is bad.
Although Olanipekun had disassociated himself from the action of Ms Ogunde, and regretted the fact that it emanated from a partner in his law firm, we call on the LPCD to initiate a disciplinary process against Ogunde over the action.
We also posit that Olanipekun continuing to be the chairman of BoB would reasonably be interpreted to conflict with or influence the processes of the LPDC by fair-minded observers and right-thinking members of the public.
Against the backdrop of Olanipekun’s partnership relationship with Ms. Ogunde, it is clear, albeit unfortunate, that he has been put in a situation where his continued occupancy of the office during this period would conflict with or be reasonably interpreted to conflict with or influence the processes of the LPDC, by fair-minded observers and right thinking members of the public, both within and outside the legal profession.
By reason of Olanipekun’s close professional ties and involvement with Ms. Ogunde, it would be an infraction of the salutary principles of natural justice for the said petition to be heard by the LPDC while he continues as chairman of the BoB, of which the LPDC is a committee.
As Lord Denning puts it “Justice must be rooted in confidence; and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking that the Judge is biased.”
