NBA President, Paul Usoro, SAN
* I Have Never Been Served Any Charge By The EFCC –
Usoro
* There Is No Provision In Nigeria’s Statute Books That Constitutes
The EFCC Into The Auditor Of Legal Fees — Usoro
* As We Approach The National Elections In 2019, Vigilance Must Be
Our Watchword, Usoro Affirms
* EFCC Lacks Locus Standi In Client-Lawyer Contractual
Relationship, NBA President, Paul Usoro, SAN Says Over Commission’s
Investigation Of AKSG Legal Fees
* We Will Revamp Our Website, NBA President Assures The
Bar
President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Paul
Usoro, SAN, has attacked the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) for meddling into Contractual Relationships
between lawyers and clients.
The NBA President disclosed his dissatisfaction with the act of
the Commission while delivering an address in a meeting with
members of the National Executive Council (NEC), held at the NBA
Secretariat, Abuja, on the 6th day of December,
2018.
Mr. Usoro said that the investigations by the EFCC on his
dealings with the Akwa Ibom State Government (AKSG) leaves behind
some very serious and far-reaching implications for legal
practitioners and the practice of the legal profession, which
lawyers should not ignore. He listed among the implications
observed, the Client-Lawyer Privilege, EFCC’s lack of Locus Standi
in Client-Lawyer Contractual Relationship, Independence of Legal
Profession and Practice, and EFCC as Auditor and/or Regulator of
Legal Fees. According to him, no law in Nigeria
authorizes the anti-graft agency to act as auditors of legal
fees.
“There is no provision in Nigeria’s statute books that
constitutes the EFCC into the auditor of legal fees. When the
EFCC arrogates to itself the right to determine the basis for a
lawyer’s fees, it not only intrudes into a client-lawyer contract
which by its nature is privileged, but also constitutes itself into
an auditor of lawyers’ fees. No such position has been created in
our statute books for the EFCC or any other agency for that
matter. The EFCC is also not set up as the regulator of
lawyers and their fees and it ought not assume such a
position.”
Speaking on the issue of the Criminalization of Lawyers’ Fees,
which happens to be another implication of the act of the
Commission, Mr. Usoro said that the EFCC appears to be straining
quite hard to criminalize the fees that are earned by lawyers for
their legitimate work. He stressed that his is not the first
of these intrusions, as he recalls the case of Chief Mike Ozekhome,
SAN, when the EFCC attempted to forfeit his fees on the pretext
that the funds came from illegal sources.
However, the NBA President gave his own account of the EFCC
Investigation of AKSG Fees. He noted that he had kept a
contemporaneous and detailed record of his visits to the EFCC
offices in Abuja. He, therefore, quoted excerpts therefrom on the
facts of the EFCC investigation. Speaking firstly, on the Zenith
Bank N300m Inflow, he explained that the inflow was payment by
Governor Udom Emmanuel in respect of an Election Petition Appeal
that was determined by the Supreme Court, wherein he served as the
coordinating Counsel in respect of the matter and had engaged
various Senior Counsel, therefore, on his behalf. He also added
that the subsequent outflows which were made through bank transfers
were the professional fees which he made on his behalf to those
Counsel based on the N300m inflow.
“They wanted to know how the cash lodgment was made into the PUC
account and I informed them that the lodgment was made at the
instance of Governor Emmanuel (albeit, not necessarily by him) and
definitely not by me or any PUC personnel and that I had no further
information, clue or knowledge beyond that,” he said.
Mr. Usoro also spoke on the N1.110bn Inflows into PUC’s Access
Bank Account from AKSG, in which he claimed he had provided an
explanation in writing to them showing that these were
payments-on-account by the State in respect of several dispute
resolution matters that we were and, in some cases, are still
handling for the State Government.
TNL recalls that copies of the PUC Notes of Charges in respect
of 3 of the 4 payment tranches and a non-exhaustive List of 19
matters were made available. He further added that though he was
invited by the EFCC for questioning at various occasions, he has
never been served by any charge by the Commission as reported by
some social media outlets.
“I have not been served with any such charge neither have I been
arraigned before any court on any such charge or at all. It
is however correct that I have been questioned by the EFCC in the
last several months in respect of fees that my Firm had been paid
by Akwa Ibom State Government (“AKSG”) between 2015 and 2016 and
also fees that Governor Udom Emmanuel, the Governorof Akwa Ibom
State had paid to me for the benefit of Counsel that worked on his
Election Petition Appeal that was decided by the Supreme Court
early in 2016,” he emphasized.
The learned Silk also made a Review of the 2018/2019 Q1, wherein
some Challenges where addressed; one of which is that the bar lost
4 of its members to violent crimes between 31 August 2018 and the
6th day of December, 2018. He, therefore, assured the
NEC members that this state of affairs would constitute a
significant discussion topic under their State of the Nation agenda
item at the NEC meeting. He also Addressed the challenge of paucity
of funds, and finally highlighted some of the Gains and Successes
of the administration which include Financial transparency and
accountability, NBA administrations through constitutional reforms,
Regaining the Confidence of Members, Osun State Election Monitoring
Report, Proactive and pervasive communication and responsiveness to
members’ complaints and Greatly Improved Turnaround Time in
Delivery of Stamps. He also touched on the Significant 2019
Assignments at hand. In this regard, he highlighted Alternative
Sources of Funding, Constitutional and Electoral Reforms, Clean
Data Capture and Institutional Memory at the NBA Secretariat,
National Elections, Rule of Law and Website Revamp and Young
Lawyers Activities.
Like this:
Like Loading…