Three
months after the ban slammed on former Attorney General of the Federation and
Justice Minister, Chief Michael Kaase Andoakaa, from using the title of Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) elapsed, indications emerged yesterday that the
one-time number one lawyer in the country remained stripped of the prestigious title.
The rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is a title
conferred on legal practitioners in Nigeria of not less than ten years’
standing and who have distinguished themselves in the legal profession.
It is the equivalent of the rank of Queen’s Counsel in the
United Kingdom. An impeccable source and member of the Legal Practitioner
Privileges Committee (LPPC) headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice
Mariam Aloma Muhktar told Saturday Mirror yesterday that Chief Andoakaa
remained stripped of the rank until the body meets to decide whether or not the
title should be restored to him.
The Head of the Office of Senior Advocates of Nigeria located on
the premises of the Supreme Court, Mr Olu Kings, also confirmed the development
as he told Saturday Mirror, in an enquiry, that the fate of the former chief
law officer hangs on the decision of the Legal Practitioners Privileges
Committee when it sits.
He speciically told Saturday Mirror that “Andoakaa remains
banned from using SAN rank until the LPPC sits.” He however said yesterday that
the committee had not fixed any definite date for its sitting. Andoakaa, it
would be recalled, was the Attorney- General of the Federation during the
regime of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
His tenure was greeted with controversial, almost unprecedented
in the history of the office in Nigeria given the crises that dogged various
legal advice he issued on legal matters during the Yar’Adua regime. He was
suspended by the LPPC from using the SAN title on October 7, 2010.
The Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Mr. Sunday
Olorundahunsi who announced the LPPC’s decision, at the time, to reporters in
his office at the Supreme Court complex said by this development, Aondoakaa had
been stripped of all the privileges attached to the rank.
He said the committee’s decision was taken after due
consideration of Aondoakaas response to a petition written against him by the
Committee for the Defence of Human Right (CDHR).
About three months after his suspension, the LPPC declared that
Andoakaa was found guilty of the allegations against him and that he remained
banned from using the title for two years, in the first instance, commencing
from December 29, 2010.
It would also be recalled that in June 2010, the Calabar
division of the Federal High Court, had restrained Aondoakaa from holding the
office of AGF or any other similar public offices in future in Nigeria.
It advised government to always consider Aondoakaa unfit and
incompetent to hold public offices because of his conduct while serving as AGF
in the administration of the late former President Umaru Musa YarAdua.
Delivering judgment in a suit filed against Aondoakaa by the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Uyo Federal Constituency, Akwa
Ibom State, Mr. Emmanuel Obot, the trial Judge, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola,
also referred the former minister to the Nigerian Bar Association for
appropriate disciplinary action
Although few lawyers queried the legality of the ban placed on
Andoakaa by LPPC, he himself made a legal move to set aside the pronouncement
of the Federal High Court on his integrity and suitability for public office in
future Since Andoakaa was banned from using his title, little has been heard of
him while enquiries revealed that he has veered into agriculture, milling rice
on Gboko Road in Markurdi.
Investigations further revealed that Chief Andoakaa who
temporarily abandoned active legal practice for agriculture registered a
company operating under the name and style of Mikap Nigeria Limited to
mass-produce sand less rice called “Miva Rice”.
The company, enquiries revealed, is hugely patronised by
government. The rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is a title conferred
on legal practitioners in Nigeria of not less than ten years’ standing and who
have distinguished themselves in the legal profession. A Senior Advocate of
Nigeria is said to have been admitted to the “Inner Bar”, as distinguished from
the “Outer”, or “Utter”, Bar, consisting of junior advocates .
Source: National
Mirror
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