The controversy which has rocked the legal profession since mid-June has been given a comic complexion by Premium Times Newspapers.
The saga which was sparked following a widely published letter from Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Petroleum Resources, Odein Ajumogobia SAN where he claimed that one Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde, a Partner in the Law Firm of Body of Benchers Chairman, Wole Olanipekun, had in June written a letter to Caio Francesco of Saipem SpA, clients to the law firm of Ajumogobia & Okeke, to woo the client, promising Saipem SpA that Chief Olanipekun SAN would use his position as Chairman of Body of Benchers to influence all Nigerian judges to give the expatriate oil company a favourable judgment in the case involving Rivers State Government vs Saipem SPA, Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited and Ors.
Ogunde’s action has since elicited condemnations from members of the legal profession who described it as violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct prohibiting self-advertising and solicitation by Nigerian legal practitioners.
Consequently, the NBA on 19 July 2022 filed a petition with the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) against Ms. Ogunde for engaging in conduct incompatible with her status as a legal practitioner and in flagrant disregard of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
Pursuant to the commencement of the trial at the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, a Committee under the Body of Benchers, the NBA President, Olumide Akpata in a letter to Chief Wole Olanipekun as Chairman of Body of Benchers, dated July 22, 2022 and titled “RE: PETITION AGAINST MS. ADEKUNBI OGUNDE BY THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION FOR ALLEGED PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT”, drew the attention of the Learned Silk to the said petition against Ms. Ogunde, a Partner at his law firm of Wole Olanipekun & Co. where he remains involved in the day-to-day running, and prevailed on him to step aside in view of his connection to the trial.
The said letter has since sparked reactions.
In Premium Times cartoon section sighted by The Lawyer, a lady is seen typing on her laptop “Consider hiring us because we have influence with Judges in all Courts”.
On the wall of the cartoon is the inscription “Nipekun & Co”
