Misconduct: Supreme Court quashes conviction of 3 lawyers


Orders reconstitution of probe panel

The Supreme Court, on Friday, set aside the conviction of three senior lawyers barred from practising in Nigeria over alleged professional misconduct.

The three lawyers are Mamman Waziri, Olayori Muideen and Dr Osaretin Izegbuwa.

The lawyers were sanctioned by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPPDC) for various misconduct in the discharge of their profession.

Justice Ejembi Eko who delivered the leading judgment in the matters via Zoom held that the actions of the LPDC panels which led to punishment of the three lawyers were not consistent with provisions of the law.

The apex court which looked into their appeal for review of their sanctions found that they were denied fair hearing as required by law.

Eko faulted the conviction of the lawyers based on the composition of the panels.

Some of the panel members who signed the verdict against the lawyers were found not to have participated in the whole proceedings as required by law.

The Supreme Court, after setting aside the decisions of the LPDC on the lawyers’ cases, ordered that the matters be returned to the LPDC for them to be tried afresh by new panels.

Justice Eko agreed with the appellants that the LDPC was wrong to have been inconsistent in the constitution of its panels that heard the three cases.

The appellants, whose complaints were similar, argued in the main, that the LPDC was not consistent in choosing members of its panels that heard their cases.

They noted that some members, who never witnessed the testimonies of some witnesses, participated in the delivery of the panels’ decisions.

Justice Eko, who relied on past decisions of the Supreme Court on the issue, particularly that on the appeal by Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN), held that such practice by the LPDC amounts to the denial of the appellants’ right to fair hearing.

“The issue is whether the appellant had been denied fair hearing. And, I am of the considered opinion that, deciding without hearing is an aspect of denial of fair hearing.

“And, accordingly, I allow the appeal, set aside the directions of the LPDC, following the decisions in Kunle Kalejaiye, Adeigbe Salami Korisimo and a host of others, and particularly on the principle that where a court is differently constituted during the hearing of a case, on various occasions when it met or where one member did not hear evidence, the effect on the proceedings is to render them all null and void,” Justice Eko said in the judgment on the appeal by Izegbuwa.

Justice Eko suggested the reduction in the number of members of each LPDC’s panel to three or four to prevent the alteration in membership, complained about by the appellants, which he noted, was becoming rampant.

“I noticed that the LPDC panel was rather large and unwieldy for the constancy in attendance and the sitting by all members.

“I should think trimming the LPDC to a panel of between three and four members would achieve a better purpose, considering the recurrence of the same problem,” he said.

Justices Odili, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Ibrahim Saulawa and Adamu Jauro, who were members of the panel, agreed with the lead judgment.