|
BNW |
|
B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
New SANS Take Oath Tomorrow, Swell Number To 218
FROM a modest two, the appointed lawyers' privileged club of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) will tomorrow rise to 218 when 15 new silks take their oaths in Abuja.
The new entrants were selected from the 149 lawyers, who applied to the committee for consideration as SANS, according to Mr. Danlami Senchi, the Registrar of the Supreme Court and Secretary of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC).
Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams and the late Dr. Nabo Bekenbo Graham-Douglas were the first to be conferred with the rank on April 3, 1975. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria Nigerian is the equivalent of the British Queens Counsel (QC).
Announcing the new conferment, Senchi said: "It is hereby notified for general information that the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, the body charged with the responsibility of appointing Senior Advocates of Nigeria, met at Abuja today, Monday, August 2, 2004 under the chairmanship of the Honourable Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, GCON, Chief Justice of Nigeria.
"The committee considered applications made by legal practitioners and academicians for the conferment of the ranks of Senior Advocate of Nigeria for the year 2004.
"A total of 149 legal practitioners and academicians applied for the rank. Of these, 17 are academicians. Eighty-five legal practitioners met the basic criteria. The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee accepted the applications of 15 applicants, one of whom is an academician as provided by the guidelines for the conferment for the rank of Senior Advocate."
The lucky ones that will have the privileged of wearing silk, sit in the front row in the court and have their cases mentioned first are:
The chairman, Conference Planning Committee (CPC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA's) annual general delegates' conference in Abuja, Mamman Mike Osuman; the first sitting senator from Cross River State and former commissioner in the state, Mr Victor Ndoma-Egba; and the publisher of Nigerian Supreme Court Law Reports, Ayodeji Oladipo Sasegbon.
Others are Mr. Alade Abiola Agbabiaka; a Port Harcourt-based environmental lawyer, Lucius Ezeka Nwosu; and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lawbreed Limited and Editor-in-Chief, Judgements of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (S.C Reports), Mr. Olayinola Moronmubo Babatunde.
Also in queue are a property consultant and advocate, Chief Ajibola Aribisala; a Warri-based general legal practitioner, Dafe Jude Akpedeye; and a Maritime lawyer, who was part of the success story of the birth of the Cabotage Act, Mr. Michael I. Igbokwe.
The honour bell will also toll for B.
E. I Nwofor, a Queens Counsel based in Britain where he teaches and practices commercial law; Fidelis Hilary Izuku Oditah; Benin-based general legal practitioner, Omoruyi Augustine Omonuwa and Patrick Nwankwo Ikwueto.
The rest are Mr Adetunyi O. Adetokunbo Oyeyipo and the Chief of Staff to Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola.
The conferment ceremony, which will take place at the imposing Supreme Court Complex, Abuja will also be used by the new President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) to unfold his vision to the judicial community.
Ahead of the ceremony, Osuman has advised his fellow learned colleagues desirous of becoming SAN to be dedicated in the "pursuit of the interest of the profession devoid of greed and with the fear of God."
To Ndoma-Egba, "the conferment goes with enormous responsibilities embedded in the crown," adding that, "with the honour it is my prayer that God will continue to be my guide. I am thankful for the honour."
Sasegbon enjoined the legal practitioners "to continue to work hard to make the practice much better than it is today," while Igbokwe pledged that "my new status is a challenge."
Commenting on his elevation, Babatunde, who is the current chairman, Continuing Legal Education (CLC) Committee of the NBA, Ikeja branch, told The Guardian that:
"My immediate reaction was to receive the news with thanksgiving to God, for the great honour and the manner it has pleased God to work things out, in His own way.
"I knew immediately that with this honour also comes greater burden, professionally and otherwise, and prayed God to be in it with me.
"I am grateful to those who considered me worthy of this honour and to my clients, without whose confidence and perseverance, there would have been no basis to apply in the first place, especially when they also paid me for their briefs."
|
|
||||||||||||
