A Nigerian lawyer who was convicted by a court for trying to subvert the cause of justice has been stripped of his SAN rank.
Dr. Joseph Nwobike
Dr. Joseph Nwobike, who was in April convicted by the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja and sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonment has been stripped of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee.
Nwobike was convicted of making attempts to pervert the course of justice by engaging in constant communication with court officials to influence the assignment of his cases to his preferred judges.
The court, in a judgment by Justice Raliat Adebiyi, convicted Nwobike of 12 out of a total of 18 counts pressed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
In a press release on Thursday, the LPPC said it had resolved to strip Nwobike of the SAN rank. The LPPC, however, did not give any reason for its action in the one-paragraph press release.
The release signed by the LPPC Secretary and the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Hadizatu Mustapha, read, “This is to notify the general public that the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, at its 132nd session which was held today, the 21st of June, 2018, has suspended Joseph Nwobike Esq. from the use of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (and all other privileges attached to the rank) in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 25 (2) of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee’s Guidelines.”