The Nigerian Bar Association has asked the Chairman of Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, to recuse himself from the chairmanship of BOB in order to enable the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee to carry out investigation on the petition against one Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde for engaging in alleged professional misconduct.
NBA made the call following a petition that it recently filed on July 19, 2022, with the LPDC, against Ogunde.
The NBA President, Mr Olumide Akpata, in a letter dated July 22, 2022, said the LPDC was a standing committee of the BOB whose processes was under the supervision of the Chairman of the BOB, an office which Olanipekun SAN currently occupied.
The letter reads: “Permit me to bring to your attention a petition recently filed by the NBA with the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee against one Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde for engaging in conduct incompatible with her status as a legal practitioner and in flagrant disregard of our rules of professional conduct which both the NBA and the Body of Benchers are by their respective mandates bound to enforce as part of the disciplinary objectives of the legal profession.
“Ms. Ogunde, the subject of the petition, as it turns out, is a Partner at the Law Firm of Wole Olanipekun & Co. where you are a founding partner and remain involved in the day-to-day running of the firm.
“This dynamic creates an undeniable shared and intertwined professional relationship between your goodself and the said Ms. Ogunde.
“Indeed, in the said petition, we have also asked the LPDC to ‘…consider whether the partners of the firm of Wole Olanipekun & Co. are not liable to be disciplined by this august body seeing that the Respondent has the ostensible authority to act as a partner and indeed acted for and on behalf of the said firm.
“As you know, the LPDC is a standing committee of the BOB whose processes come under the supervision of the Chairman of the BOB – an office which you currently occupy.
“Against the backdrop of your partnership relationship with Ms.Ogunde, vis-a-vis the prosecution of the petition by the LPDC, it is clear, albeit unfortunate, that you have been put in a situation where your continued occupancy of the office during this period would conflict or be reasonably interpreted to conflict, with or influence the processes of the LPDC, by fair-minded observers and right thinking members of the public, both within and outside our profession.
“By reason of your close professional ties and involvement with Ms. Ogunde, it would be an infraction of the salutary principles of natural justice for the said Petition to be heard by the LPDC while you continue as Chairman of the BOB, of which the LPDC is a committee.
“Consequent upon the above, I am constrained to invite you to recuse yourself from chairmanship of the BOB henceforth and to allow for the emplacement of an interim leadership of the BOB, in order to enable the LPDC carry out this particular assignment, amongst others, without coming under an undue suspicion of impartiality.”
