The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has been re-jigged to step above past cases of abuse to tackle the menace of unprofessional conducts among legal practitioners. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports that expectations are high that the committee will live up to the expectation of the public and practitioners despite its myriad challenges.
Two weeks ago, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella body of legal practitioners in the country stated that it has identified seven lawyers; including a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, that influenced judges to issue conflicting court orders, especially on political matters. The NBA through its President, Mr. Olumide Akpata, said the legal practitioners were found culpable by its investigative committee, adding that they would be charged before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), for judicial misconduct.
The allegations from the NBA did not surprise many. Indeed, there is a belief among the public that corruption has become endemic in the Nigerian judiciary and as such, rather than create disdain, the information only reinforced people’s belief about corruption in the judiciary. It will be recalled that the National Judicial Council (NJC), recently barred three high court judges from getting promotion for periods ranging from two to five years, after it found them guilty of issuing conflicting ex-parte orders. The NJC had explained that while there was no written petition, allegations of corruption or impropriety against the said three judges, it had investigated them based on being found culpable of giving conflicting orders.
However, the issue of corruption is not peculiar to the judiciary; every sector in Nigeria is dealing with its burden of corruption. However, people believe that the judiciary should not be caught in the web of Nigeria’s prevalent corruption as it is the arm of government saddled with the responsibility of upholding the sanctity of the law.
The expectation of people is not out of place; the legal profession is seen as a noble and conservative one with rules that jealously guard its ethics and standards. And in order to preserve the ethics of the profession, there are several regulatory bodies, prominent among which is the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), a committee of the Body of Benchers established to consider and determine allegations of misbehaviour by persons whose names are on the roll in their capacity as legal practitioners.
Confirming that there are issues of corruption in the Bar, the NBA National Welfare Secretary, Mr Kunle Edun said “lately, there has been allegations of heightened indiscipline and unethical practices amongst lawyers. The latest intervention by the NBA to ensure that lawyers that bring the profession into disrepute are sanctioned is a welcome development. As a matter of fact, every lawyer or any person who has a good reason to believe that a lawyer has acted unprofessionally has a duty to report such ethical infraction by making a complaint directly to the LPDC supported with a statement on oath sworn to by the complainant.”
The LPDC is responsible for disciplining erring legal practitioners and those adjudged guilty of the rules guiding the behavioural or attitudinal patterns of persons admitted into the profession in the course of their practice and consists of highly esteemed persons in the legal profession. Their decision can however be appealed by aggrieved legal practitioners only at the Supreme Court on the authority of the provisions of Section 12 of the Legal Practitioners Act (as amended) or Section 9 of Decree 21 of 1994.
The LPDC had heard diverse cases of misconduct by legal practitioners effectively in the past. Many had appealed its decision and won while some decisions were upheld.
June 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the LPDC to constitute a fresh panel to hear and determine the case of three lawyers who appealed the conviction of the committee holding that they were guilty of professional misconduct. The Apex court had set aside the conviction of the three practitioners; Mamman Waziri, Olayori Muideen and Osaretin Izegbuwa. The Apex court’s decision of nullifying the trials conducted by LPDC was on the ground that proceedings by the LPDC were in flagrant violation of the provisions of fair hearing and the provisions of law guiding disciplinary issues.
Cases like these have put a dent on the image of the committee and affected how some lawyers perceive it. However, it has not removed the respect many have for the body in general as there is still a strong belief that the LPDC remains the only way to sanitize the profession.
Chief Yomi Alliyu (SAN) confirmed that past experiences had put skepticism on the action and decisions of the LPDC. He told the Nigerian Tribune that “at a time, it was abused. Those at the helms of NBA affairs were using it to deal with their perceived enemies. The body went as far as procuring evidence on its own to hang those against whom allegations are made when petitioners failed to appear. This is against the principle of fair hearing!
“At a time the President of the Court of Appeal intentionally supervised the conviction of a senior counsel on tribal basis. A judge from the North was compulsorily retired for alleged infraction involving election petition in one of the Southwest States. The petitioner did not appear, yet NJC retired the judge who refused to test same in court because he had only three months to serve. At the LPDC too, the petitioner did not appear but the then President of the Court of Appeal insisted that the lawyer must be derobed since his Lordship brother from the North had been compulsorily retired on the basis of the petition filed against him and the counsel by Yoruba politicians.
“Though His Lordship had never sat at the LPDC proceedings during trial, His Lordship sat with other panelists on the day of their ruling to ensure that her instructions were carried out to letters. The affected lawyer was even banned from going to police stations to bail anybody including members of his family. The Supreme Court overruled LPDC. This led to a plethora of appeals to the Supreme Court which revisited the past rulings of the LPDC with many overturned! Little wonder that the present executive of the NBA disbanded the prosecutors empowered by the NBA.
“Each petitioner is now allowed to prosecute the lawyer he petitioned against before the LPDC personally or through a lawyer of his choice! No doubt that the innovation has brought sanity to the operation of LPDC. One hopes this will make the panel live up to the expectation of the public and practitioners,” he stated.
LPDC still important —lawyers
Speaking on the move by the NBA, people’s lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), said it was a step in the right direction, noting that the Bench, through the National Judicial Council (NJC), had done its part. He added that “these are lawyers involved in the conflicting order matter. It takes two to tango. Applications are filed before judges by lawyers. NJC has done its own part, it is now the turn of the NBA to deal with its own erring members and that is what is being done now.”
On his part, the NBA National Welfare Secretary, Mr. Kunle Edun said “the Nigerian Bar Association is a body of lawyers with the main object of promoting the rule of law and therefore, it is a profession of noblemen. The Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners guide how lawyers conduct themselves in the performance of the services for which they are retained.
“Any infraction of the Rules is viewed seriously and makes the defaulters liable to be prosecuted before the Legal Practitioner’s Disciplinary Committee. The NBA takes the issue of professional misconduct by any of its members very seriously and henceforth, it will no longer be a tea party. As lawyers, we are the moral conscience of the society. We must therefore, be seen to be above board in everything that we do. To fix Nigeria, we must ensure that we have the right attitude to do it. This is the message the NBA is sending to its members,” he said.
Speaking on his impressions about the NBA LDPC, Chief Alliyu (SAN) said the LPDC is a necessary organ of the NBA which deals with erring members of the association and its importance cannot be overemphasised because any organisation must do appraisal of its members and admonish its members when necessary. He added that such admonitions positively impact the confidence of the public who is the end user of the legal practitioner in that he has a body to report to where such a person is aggrieved.
“Also the LPDC keeps members on their toes to behave appropriately since they know any infraction of their rules of professional conduct will be dealt with appropriately. The LPDC is largely living up to expectations and there can be room for improvement as well. This is because the committee acts most times with dispatch on complaints brought before it either at the branch or national level. There are times, investigations into complaints seem to be prolonged. It may be due to the non availability of the complainant himself or of documents to be used. The basic rule of fair hearing which also encapsulates that you must hear the other side as stipulated in the FGN Constitution 1999 also has to be complied with.
“The LPDC 2020 Rules have provisions that make it easy for laymen, legal practitioners and even NBA branches with complaints to prove their allegations. For instance, Order 9 of the Rules says the Evidence Act and Strict Codes of the Evidence Act are not applicable to proceedings before it. Order 10 allows hearing of an originating application on facts contained in the affidavits of both parties. So it is not in all instances that parties are required to physically attend the proceedings which reduce the cost on the parties. Also there is a pre- hearing procedure by the initial committee member to determine the validity or otherwise of complaints.
“Where the complainant is not satisfied with the direction of this initial procedure, another panel of three members is constituted to examine the originating application and decide the merit or otherwise of the complaint. All these provisions are built into the LPDC Rules to ensure fairness and just determination of complaints. So many members of the Public have heard their complaints and given favorable decisions against legal practitioners,” he said.
On his part, a former chairman of NBA, Ikeja, Dave Ajetomobi said, “I think the LPDC are trying their best given the circumstances under which they are operating. It must be noted that there are more desperately dubious lawyers now than ever before, so the committee has much to do now than ever. You see many young lawyers that want to use an SUV within the four years of being called to Bar. Nothing is wrong with that provided it is done in a legitimate way; unfortunately many prefer the shortcut.
“Many lawyers are lawless in the extreme. I know a case where a lawyer preferred to lock up a premises instead of going to court. I have once served as secretary to one of the investigative panels of the national body, within a space of two months, I received two Ghana must go bags of petitions, I was frightened! Many of them were meritorious while few were frivolous. Imagine a senior lawyer collecting millions for land that he could not deliver!
“The committee is overburdened. I am not aware that they are paid for the job; they are doing it for the love of the profession. I don’t think that the prosecutors too are paid. The efficiency of the committee can be enhanced by decentralization of the committee instead of the present centralization which contrate their work in Abuja. The rules can be amended to enable creation of more panels to sit in states with most petitions like Lagos.
“They can also take advantage of IT by adopting a virtual system of handling cases so committee members can participate in the hearing of petitions without having to travel to Abuja, while petitioners and respondents can attend from wherever they are. The chances are that misconducts may not reduce because of the current economic woes being experienced in the country. The Bar must devise a way to deal with the increasing wave of professional misconduct plaguing the legal profession,” he said.
Mrs Folasade Aladeniyi, Principal Counsel at Nissi Lexis Chambers said, “As a former member of my branch’s LPDC, it opened my eyes to the fact that as lawyers, we are being watched and every of our action is being scrutinised by the society who expects better than the average conduct of professionalism and behavior from us. Without covering up ourselves, some legal practitioners’ conduct actually falls short of those expectations and so in deserving cases, such practitioners should not be left off the hook. Order 22 of the Rules stipulates that a member’s name can be struck off the Roll, or a member can be suspended or ordered to make a refund or hand over documents kept unlawfully by him. Also a legal practitioner can be admonished. All these are being applied to proven cases brought before the LPDC.”
Mercy Tolulope Abudu of Paddle Solicitors expressed the belief that the NBA LPDC are doing well, adding that “I have used it indirectly. I remember someone I know reported a lawyer who collected money from him but refused to do the work to NBA LPDC, not only did they make the lawyer refund the money, they ensured proper compensation. The NBA LPDC are very diligent too.”
For Foluso Oladapo, “I have not used it before. Mostly it regulates the activities of legal practitioners in the country. And the fear of LPDC is the beginning of wisdom for lawyers. In other words, they are good and efficient.”
