ABUJA–A former member of Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon. Friday Sani Makama, on Friday, filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the elevation of Barrister Abdul Wahab Mohammed to the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Mohammed is one of the 72 lawyers recently okayed by the Legal Practitioners and Privileges Committee (LPPC) for the conferment of the SAN rank.
He is also the immediate younger brother of Kogi State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mohammed Sani Ibrahim.
The ex-lawmaker approached the court seeking to stop the LPPC from going ahead to confer the prestigious title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on him on the account of his subsisting petition directed to the committee regarding him.
According to him, “Barrister Abdul Wahab Mohammed is the younger brother of Kogi State Attorney-General.
“He is the lawyer who handles all legal cases on behalf of Kogi State using the privilege of his elder brother, Mohammed Sani Ibrahim, who is the Commissioner for Justice despite very senior lawyers from Kogi State.
Makama, who was a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker, was suspended from the House under controversial circumstances in 2018.
At the time, Makama represented Igalamela/Odolu State Constituency and Chairman of Public Accounts Committee in Kogi State House of Assembly.
He sued the Kogi state over his suspension and the case ran through the court hierachy while the Supreme Court ordered his recall but that the judgment is yet to be complied with two years after the verdict.
According to him, the nominee who was Kogi State prosecutor in his case filed a frivolous application against the Supreme Court judgement in his favour which he was penalised for breaching the ethics of legal profession.
He said “frivolous application” is a fundamental breach that disqualifies any applicant for the conferment of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, insisting that the LPPC should respect its own rules by expunging the Kogi nominee from the 2020 SAN award.
“You may recall that, I instituted a lawsuit against the State government in 2018 over non-payment of my salaries and allowances while I was serving in the State House of Assembly in Kogi State.
“Though, the state government claimed to have stopped payment of my salaries and allowances on the basis of the fact that I was suspended by the House of Assembly. I won them in courts.
“Although in 2018, the Supreme court gave a meritorious judgement allowing the appeal with the order that the state government should pay me all my salaries and allowances, emolument and monies due to me within the period of my tenure as a sitting member of the Kogi State House of Assembly and allow me resume my legislative duties forthwith.
“Ever since then, the lawyer to the State Government, Abdul Wahab continues to file frivolous applications to frustrate the judgment of the Supreme Court in 2019.
“The Supreme Court dismissed Abdul Wahab’s application which was asking it to reverse itself in the earlier judgement given to me.
“The Supreme Court dismissed and described Barrister Abdul Wahab’s application as frivolous and vexatious.
According to him, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee ought to have looked at the merit of his petition against the nominee adding that the manner they were going about it raises suspicion from him.
In the court documents seen by newsmen, no date has been fixed for hearing yet.
