The
legal practitioners' privileges committee has stripped a Nigerian
lawyer of his Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) title over act
'unbefitting of the holder of the rank'.
Beluolisa Nwofor
A Nigerian lawyer, Beluolisa Nwofor, who represented the Ali
Modu-Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the legal
battle for the party’s ticket ahead of last year’s governorship election
in Ondo State, has been stripped off his Senior Advocate of Nigeria
rank by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee.
According to a report by Punch newspaper, the Sheriff faction had
recorded a temporary victory by obtaining a judgment of the Federal High
Court in Abuja, which recognised the faction’s preferred aspirant,
Jimoh Ibrahim, as the PDP’s governorship candidate for the said
governorship poll.
The victory was truncated few days to the election when the Court
of Appeal in Abuja in its judgment delivered on November 23, 2016,
retrieved the ticket from Ibrahim and returned it to Eyitayo Jegede, who
was the candidate of the rival Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party.
The LPPC, in a statement dated Thursday but released late on
Friday, described the conduct of Nwofor during the hearing of the case
as “unbecoming of the holder of the esteemed rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.”
The statement signed by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court
and Secretary of the LPPC, Ahmed Saleh, stated that the decision to
strip Nwofor of his SAN rank was based on a petition filed against the
lawyer by the Court of Appeal.
The decision, according to the statement, took immediate effect. The statement read,
“The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee at its 126th General
Meeting held on 22nd of June, 2017 considered extensively the complaint
filed by the Court of Appeal of Nigeria against B.E.I Nwofor Esq., a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, with his response to same and all material
facts and have decided that B.E.I Nwofor Esq., a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, conducted himself in a manner unbecoming of the holder of the
esteemed rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
“By reason of the foregoing, the rank of Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (including its privileges) has been withdrawn from B.E.I Nwofor
Esq., forthwith.”
Nwofor is also the lawyer who defended Chidi Lloyd, a former Rivers
state house of assembly member, who assaulted a fellow lawmaker with
the mace on the floor of the chamber in July 2013.
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