A judge of the Ogun State High Court has drawn the attention of
the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) Legal Practitioners
Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) and the police to the activities of
lawyers who specialise in collecting money from clients while
purporting that it is meant for judges who handle their cases,
Daily trust. reports.
LPDC is the unit of the NBA that carries out the function of
disciplining erring lawyers.
LPDC is comprised of the Attorney General of the Federation
(chairperson) and all attorneys general of the 36 states, as well
as 12 lawyers of not less than 10 years standing who sit and
determine the cases sent to it by the NBA.
Trouble started following revelations when the Ogun judge’s
court registrar said in the open court that a litigant approached
her while the court was not in session and demanded to know
“whether the N250,000 cash gift that was collected from her by her
lawyer has been given to the judge in order to get a favourable
judgment.”
The registrar went into the judge’s chambers and disclosed
exactly what the litigant told her to the judge.
The Judge, Olugboyega Ogunfowora, who was shocked, said he could
even dash a lawyer N250,000, adding that he did not indulge in any
activity that was expensive which he could not afford.
The judge, therefore, decided not to pass judgment and returned
the case file for reassignment to another judge, as well as
referred the case to the LPDC and the police.
It was further gathered that of late, this has become the habit
and fashion among some lawyers. In order to get more money from
their clients, they ask such clients to make separate payment
(sometimes running into hundreds of thousands or even millions of
naira) for publicity and for judges who handle their cases. But
neither the judge nor the press will be given such money which will
be pocketed by the lawyer in addition to his/her legal fees.
Barr. Sikiruudeen Roberts said, “A good percentage of lawyers
take the bribe in the name of the judge and take it for themselves
and inform their clients that they had concluded the deal. In the
event of losing the case, they would say that the other side had
given a larger amount. Very rarely is the judge bribed.”
Some lawyers have commended the court registrar that reported
the matter to her judge, and that if she had not reported the
matter to the judge, there was no way the court would be aware of
such practice.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who was in court, also
related his experience before another judge.
The SAN said he took over a case from a lawyer that had earlier
handled it who had told his client to give monetary gift to the
judge, and that the lawyer never gave any money to the judge.
He said the lawyer went into the judge’s chambers with a brief
case loaded with money in the presence of the client and came out
without dropping a dime, and that the client then went to his
friends and told them the lawyer had collected money for the
judge.
The judge later got to know about the issue but never disclosed
to anyone. So In most cases judges are unaware of these
practices.