The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has renewed its demand that embattled foremost lawyer and Chairman of Nigeria’s elite Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) must step aside from the position.
In a letter dated December 4 to Olanipekun, copied to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola as well as to all life benchers NBA President, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) asked Olanipekun to “immediately yield to the Vice Chairman of this Body, Justice Mary Peter Odili, JSC, retired, to preside over the Call to Bar Ceremony scheduled for 6 and 7 December 2022.”
The NBA president said that there is the “need for an urgent remedial action.”
Maikyau stated that he was adopting the letter by his immediate predecessor-in-office, Mr. Olumide Akpata dated 22nd July, 2022 “and call for its immediate consideration (by the Body of Benchers).”
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Trouble started with a complaint by former Minister of Energy and Petroleum ministries, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia (SAN) over an email from Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde, a Partner in Wole Olanipekun & Co, allegedly soliciting to take over a brief his law firm was handling from his client, SAIPEM SPA.
Following his demand for an apology, Wole Olanipekun & Co apologized for the debacle and disowned the partner.
A petition by NBA against Ogunde is pending at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), an organ of the Body of Benchers chaired by former FCT High Court chief judge, Justice Ishaq Bello.
Maikyau said that “The Body of Benchers has, since its establishment, seen some of the best legal minds this nation has ever produced.”
The NBA President stated that he has since assuming office “expressed concerns over the negative impact of the email by Adekunbi Ogunde (as with so many other actions of our colleagues), on the legal profession in Nigeria,” describing the email as “disgusting.”
His words: “Mr. Chairman, I did not mince words about the devastating effect of that email on our noble profession of law and by virtue of the strategic position of this Body in showcasing the crème-de-la-crème of the legal profession in Nigeria, this Body must acquit itself of any complicity, albeit after the fact, in any act of professional misconduct.”
