20101206
Vanguard

FORMER Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, is to wait till 2012 to append the SAN title after his name, as the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee ,LPPC, yesterday, shortened his indefinite suspension from the Nigerian Inner Bar to just two years.

LPPC, which made this disclosure at the end of its meeting at the Supreme Court complex in Abuja, maintained that the decision to suspend the erstwhile AGF for two years was reached after due consideration of the report of a sub-committee earlier set-up to review the petition against him.

The said petition was written by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights.

LPPC said it concluded that Aondoakaa deserved to be stripped of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in-view of the judgment delivered by a Federal High Court sitting in Calabar on June 1, 2010, which it said not only categorically branded him unfit to hold the office of the AGF or any public office in Nigeria but equally declared him as persona non-grata for offences relating to corruption.

A statement signed by the secretary of the legal body, Mr. Sunday Olorundahunsi, Esq, said the recent decision of the American Government to revoke the entry visa of the former AGF, pointed to the fact that he was a bad influence on the Nigerian Judiciary.

Action is ultra-vires - NBA president J.B Daudu, SAN

The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, yesterday, described the action of the LPPC in suspending Aondoakaa as illegal, ultra-vires and null and void.

NBA President, J. B. Daudu, SAN, told Vanguard: "We at the NBA wish to maintain our earlier stand on this matter. The LPPC does not have the power to sanction any erring judicial officer be it a senior advocate or lawyer. Such matters is the exclusive preserve of the disciplinary committee.

"LPPC is only empowered to look into matters that deal with privileges of legal practitioners and this power does not extend to sanctioning of anybody. Though they can receive petitions, the onus is on the privileges committee to recommend and not to execute.

Consequently, the purported two years suspension of the former AGF as far as the NBA is concerned is illegal and void.

Chief Amechi Nwaiwu, SAN, said: "In as much as the LPPC has the power to confer the SAN title on deserving legal practitioners, it should equally have the power to retrieve it when it is proved that there is a prima-facie case against any of the SANs.

However, in doing so, the accused person must be accorded his fundamental right to fair hearing. He must be invited alongside the petitioner to state his own side of the story.

"It's not a decision that can be taken in the absence of the accused person. In the instant case, I am not aware whether or not Aondoakaa was given the opportunity to defend himself. I cannot condemn the action taken by the committee until I discover the factors they considered before arriving at that decision.

Bear it in mind that the LPPC equally have the powers to receive petitions before SAN is conferred on anybody listed for the rank."