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Director General of the Nigeria Law School, Dr. Koleade Adeniji Abayomi, Delta State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Amos Agbe Utuama and London-based Nigerian attorney, Erik Oba Nsugbe are among 15 legal practitioners and academics who were yesterday appointed Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN).
Director General of the Nigeria Law School, Dr. Koleade Adeniji Abayomi, Delta State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Amos Agbe Utuama and London-based Nigerian attorney, Erik Oba Nsugbe are among 15 legal practitioners and academics who were yesterday appointed Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN).
Others are Donald Ibezim Udogu, Bernard Iyorlyam Hom, Emmanuel Oludele Akinsola Idowu, Cyprian Okafor Anah, Ifedayo Adams Adedipe, Affam Ekanem Affam and Gholahan Olabukola Akintunde Elias.
The list also included Titus Olasupo Ashaolu, Pius Ademu Akubo, Mobolaji Olukayode Ayorinde, Oluwakemi Adekunle Pinheiro and Ezekiel Adebayo Adenipekun.
Sixty-five year old Abayomi attended CMS Grammar School and Kings College both in Lagos for his secondary education. He later enrolled in the Law Faculty of the Durham University in the United States for his bacheloor's degree. He bagged a doctorate degree from the Cambridge University in 1970.
He joined the Nigerian Law School in 1970 as lecturer Grade II and served as Secretary, Council of Legal Education from 1999 to 2001. He became deputy director and head of Lagos company of the Law School in 2001. He was appointed director-general last year.
Ituamah from Ughelli North area of Delta State was educated in the University of Lagos where he obtained the bachelor, master and doctorate degrees. He later taught property law in the same university before he was appointed as chief legal officer to his state government in 1999.
Nsugbe, a native of Delta State is the first Nigerian practising abroad to be awarded the prestigious rank of Queen's Counsel in 2002. He was then 39 years old. In 1999, he became the youngest lawyer ever appointed a recorder by the Lord Chancellor's Department (equivalent of the office of Chief Justice) with authority to sit as a judge in the Crown Courts of England and Wales at the age of 35.
He is a member of the Glidewell Committee which reported on Judicial Appointments and Silk in the year 2003 and Chair of the British-Nigerian Law Forum. His areas of practice are commercial contracts, corruption, mutual assistance, health and safety, serious fraud, money laundering and general crime.
Nsugbe who is a partner in the Chamber of Christopher Clare (QC) in London is a part time judge of the Crown Court of England, Master of the Bench, Advocacy Trainer Grade and Bencher of Gray's Inn. He enrolled as a barrister of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 1985 and enrolled in the Nigerian bar in the following year.
Forty-year old Pinheiro, an indigene of Lagos attended the University of Benin and graduated in 1986. He was called to the Bar in 1987. He served as special assistant to Mrs. Wonu Folami when she was attorney-general of Lagos State between 1997 and 1998. He is married to Yetunde, a Magistrate and he is the senior partner of Pinheiro and Company.
Elias, whose father, Dr. Taslim Elias, was the second indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria and late President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), was educated at Oxford and specialises in corporate law.
Anah like Elias is also son of a prominent lawyer. His father Senator Nathaniel Anah was also a senior advocate and represented Cross River State in the Second Republic Senate.
Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Danlami Senchi, who announced the appointment said the 15 persons where chosen by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) after their meeting in Abuja yesterday.
LPPC is the body charged with the responsibility of appointing Senior Advocates and it is Chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais.
Senchi said a total of 150 legal practitioners and academics applied for the rank, and that out of the number, 24 academics and 82 legal practitioners met the basic criteria for the award.
Out of the 15 persons, Abayomi is the only academic who made the list while the rest are legal practitioners. Nsugbe who is a Queens Counsel (QC) gained automatic appointment in the list.
Meanwhile, the swearing-in of the newly appointed SANs by Uwais will take place at a special session of the Supreme Court on Monday September 26, 2005.