An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Chuks Nwachukwu, was, on Tuesday, fined N20m by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He incurred the fine following a suit he filed at the court on behalf of five Abuja residents seeking to stop the May 29 inauguration of President Bola Tinubu.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment, however, struck out the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked locus standi to institute the matter.
“I make an order striking out this action on grounds of lack of locus standi of the plaintiffs, lack of jurisdiction of the court and failure of the plaintiffs to demonstrate to this court that similar subject is not pending before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which proceedings are ongoing.”
Justice Ekwo consequently ordered the lawyer to pay the Attorney-General of the Federation and Chief Justice of Nigeria, listed as 1st and 2nd defendants, respectively, in the case, the sum of N10m each.
The judge held that until Nwachukwu paid off the N20m, no further action should be taken in the matter.
The judge, who also condemned some media comments allegedly made by Nwachukwu, said he would have made an additional order to bar the lawyer from practising “until he appears before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee to determine whether he is fit to practise the profession.”
“But since he is not in court, I made an order, directing the Registrar to forward all the processes to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee to determine whether he is fit to practise the profession,” the judge said.
Justice Ekwo also directed that the order of the court be served on the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, the AGF and the Nigerian Bar Association.
The five FCT residents, Anyaegbunam Okoye, David Adzer, Jeffrey Uche, Osang Paul and Chibuike Nwanchukwu, had in the suit sought a court order to stop the May 29 inauguration of Tinubu as President, on the argument that he didn’t win 25 per cent of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory during the February 25 presidential election.
The plaintiffs claimed that they filed the suit on behalf of themselves and other residents and registered voters in the FCT, but the judge said upon reading the affidavit attached to the suit, he could discern that the lawyer only used the residents as fronts to file the suit.
“I can discern that the averments thereof are merely the voice of Esau and the hands of Jacob.
“It means that the said Chucks Nwachukwu of counsel for the plaintiffs instigated this suit and merely got the plaintiffs to stand in as parties while he handles the suit as a lawyer.
“This is an unprofessional conduct on the part of the said Chucks Nwachukwu of counsel for the plaintiffs.
“It is unfortunate that lawyers like Chucks Nwachukwu of counsel for the plaintiffs continue to engage in this sort of activity by procuring innocent citizens to act as fronts in litigations which are actually their personal cases.
“This is done with such impunity and lack of fear of the consequence to the chagrin and ruin of the reputation of the legal system in this country.
“It is so because the learned counsel has made himself believe that he can flout the Rule of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners without any consequence.
“On the whole, I find that this action is premised on recklessness, frivolity and complete lack of knowledge of the elementary principle of law as it relates to the 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act, 2022,” he said.
The judge pronounced that, “The aim thereof which cannot be denied, is to plunge this country into unprecedented constitutional anarchy capable of causing bloodshed and genocide.
“The plaintiffs and their lawyer ought to be deprecated in the strongest term for this type of adventure and I so do.”
