Posted by Lanre Adewole, Abuja on
The Supreme Court has suspended an Abia-based legal practitioner, Mr. Eze Umazi Ndukwe from legal practice for a year, for defrauding a client of the sum of N25,000.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Supreme Court has suspended an Abia-based legal practitioner, Mr. Eze Umazi Ndukwe from legal practice for a year, for defrauding a client of the sum of N25,000.
The apex court held last Friday that the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee,which found Ndukwe guilty of the offence, was right in slamming him with the punishment.
Justice Walter Onoghen, while leading four others in reviewing the punishment, recommended by the discplinary committee, said that the misconduct should have attracted stiffer punishment, like a life ban.
The ban, according to the apex court, must take immediate effect. The suspended lawyer was indicted of recovering the sum of N25,000 as part settlement of a judgment debt amounting to CFA 20,000,000, in his capacity as a legal practitioner for his client but refused to pay it over to him.
'Having regard to the gravity of the offence this does not only affect the appellant (Ndukwe) as a legal practitioner but the reputation of all members of the legal profession in general," Onoghen said.