Nigeria: Former AGF stripped of legal title

  1. Posted on Saturday 9 October 2010 - 16:00
    Samuel
    Image of Samuel
    Samuel Okocha, AfricaNews reporter in Lagos, Nigeria
    Former Attorney General of the Federation AGF and Minister of Justice in Nigeria Micheal Aondoaka was stripped of the prestigious legal title of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN following allegations of corruption and abuse of power while in office, the first time a SAN will be suspended from the inner bar.
    gavel
    The decision came after the body of Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee considered Mr. Aoandokaa’s response to the petitions brought against him by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR)

    “...the committee, after due consideration of the said response, has decided in its wisdom, to suspend him from the use of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria and all other privileges attached to that rank, pending the outcome of the investigation by the sub-committee set up by the legal practitioners privileges committee,” Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr. Sunday Olorundahunsi and the Secretary of the Committee told newsmen in Abuja on Thursday.

    The petition

    The CDHR had berated the former AGF, popular during the administration of Late President Yar’Adua, for using his office to obstruct the law from taking its cause, a situation that left high profile corruption cases such as the Haliburton hanging.

    “…he proceeded to use his position as AGF to emasculate the anti-corruption institutions and pursue the same goals he could not pursue at the Supreme Court in the course of doing which he engaged in acts that abused the powers of his office and dragged the nobility of, not only the office of the AGF and of the rank of SAN but of the Legal Profession in the mud of infamy thereby violating the code of Ethics of the Legal Profession.” CDHR said in its petition.

    Past troubles

    Before his suspension as a SAN, a travel ban to the United States was placed on the former Attorney General earlier in the year, due to allegations of obstruction of justice while he was a minister between July, 2007 and February, 2010.

    A High Court also recently barred Mr. Aondoakaa from holding any public office, following a lawsuit that accused him of impeding judgment during an election hearing.

    Goodluck Jonathan had in his assumption of office as president removed Mr. Aandokaa from the justice ministry, assigning him to the special duties ministry, a position that marked his exit from government.

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