$418 Million Judgment Debt: Consultants Drag 5 SANs To Court For Alleged Contempt Of Court; Seek Referral To LPPC And LPDC For Disciplinary Sanctions

Some consultants to the Nigerian Governors Forum on the Paris/London Club Refund; Dr. George Uboh and Panic Alert Security System [PASS] have dragged Five Senior Advocates of Nigeria before the Federal High Court seeking for their imprisonment and disciplinary sanctions from both Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC)  and Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) for alleged contempt of the Court and violation of Section 287(3) of the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The affected Senior Advocates of Nigeria are S.I. Ameh, SAN, J.S. Okutepa, SAN, Dr. Garba Tetengi, SAN, Ahmed Raji, SAN and A. O. Akinboro, SAN.

In the processes they filed, the Consultants told the Court that the Five Senior Advocates, after the delivery of the Court’s Judgment on the 25^th day of March, 2022, issued a caveat emptor dated the 28^th day of March, 2022, urging members of the public and Financial Institutions in Nigeria and abroad desist from giving value to the Promissory Notes which the Federal Government has already issued to the Consultants. They alleged that the CAVEAT EMPTOR issued by the five Senior Lawyers violated the Ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on the 13^th day of December, 2021, the Judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on the 25^th day of March, 2022 and the earlier Consent Judgment of the same Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on the 8th day of April, 2019 all of which have neither been vacated, upturned on appeal or their execution successfully stayed by any Court in Nigeria.

They alleged that the conduct of the Senior Advocates amounts to a grave violation of Section 287(3) of the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that imposes a peremptory duty on all authorities and persons to enforce the judgment of the Federal High Court of Nigeria throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They also want the Court to refer the five Senior Advocates of Nigeria to both the LPPC and the LPDC for disciplinary sanctions as their conduct is allegedly a violation of the oath they took as Senior Advocates of Nigeria to protect the Nigerian Constitution and further amounts to an infamous conduct unbecoming of a legal practitioner.

In their Motion on Notice filed on the 5^th day of April, 2022 before Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court, the Consultants prayed the Court for:

1. AN ORDER of this Honourable Court committing the following persons to prison custody;

(a)        SUNDAY IBRAHIM AMEH, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(b)       JUBRIL SAMUEL OKUTEPA, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(c)        DR. GARA TETENGI, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(d)       AHMED RAJI, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA; and

(e)        AARE OLUMUYIWA AKINBORO, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA for CONTEMPT of this Honourable Court.

2. AN ORDER of this Honourable Court directing the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court of Nigeria to forward the Ruling of this Honourable Court – on this Motion – to the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) of the Body of Benchers as the complaint of this Honourable Court – bordering on “infamous conduct unbecoming of a legal practitioner” – against the under-listed persons;

(a)        SUNDAY IBRAHIM AMEH, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(b)       JUBRIL SAMUEL OKUTEPA, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(c)        DR. GARA TETENGI, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(d)       AHMED RAJI, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA; and

(e)        AARE OLUMUYIWA AKINBORO, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

3. AN ORDER of this Honourable Court directing the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court of Nigeria to forward the Ruling of this Honourable Court – on this Motion – to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) of the Body of Benchers as the complaint of this Honourable Court – bordering on “infamous conduct unbecoming of a legal practitioner” – against the under-listed persons;

(a)        SUNDAY IBRAHIM AMEH, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(b)       JUBRIL SAMUEL OKUTEPA, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(c)        DR. GARA TETENGI, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

(d)       AHMED RAJI, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA; and

(e)        AARE OLUMUYIWA AKINBORO, SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA

In one of their grounds for filing the Motion, the Consultants stated that:

“The conduct of the Learned Senior Counsel to the Plaintiffs, in denigrating the Orders/Rulings/Judgments of this Honourable Court, spitting on Section 287(3) of the amended 1999 Constitution – which they all swore to protect – is extremely scandalous, smacks of infamous conduct unbecoming of a Legal Practitioner, shockingly nibbles at the very foundation of our constitutional democracy, smacks of grave contempt for the dignity of this Honourable Court capable of rudely shaking the confidence of a common man in the efficacy of reliefs which this Honourable Court grants, capable of bringing the entire justice administration mechanisms to odium and ridicule and runs counter to the very grain of the oath office they took as Senior Advocates and custodians of the Nigerian Constitution.”