Former AG/Justice Minister, Aondoakaa FORMER Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa Monday lost his battle to reclaim his Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) suspended him from using the rank for two years.
A statement by the Chief Registrar and Secretary of the committee, Sunday Olorundahunsi, said the decision was reached at a meeting in Abuja Monday.
A petition was written against Aondoaka by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
Chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, LPPC is responsibile for selecting lawyers that are eligible for SAN.
The rank gives a lawyer the privilege to sit at the first row in courts and to wear a silk gown. His case would also be heard first.
LPPC had, on October 7, suspended Aondoakaa, pending the outcome of investigation by a sub-committee, which submitted its report yesterday.
The initial suspension was based on Aondoakaa’s response to the petition.
The statement from Olorundahunsi reads: "The former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, has finally bagged a two-year suspension from the use of the rank of SAN, after a meeting of the LPPC held Monday at the Supreme Court of Nigeria in Abuja.
"The decision to suspend the erstwhile AGF was reached after due consideration of the report of the sub-committee set up to review the petition of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and the judgment of the Federal High Court in Calabar on June 1, declaring among others that he is unfit to hold the office of Attorney-General or any public office in Nigeria; and the declaration of his person as persona non grata for offences relating to corruption and the consequent revocation of his entry visa by the American government earlier in the year.”
In a 13-page petition by CDHR President Olasupo Ojo, Aondoakaa was accused of “gross professional misconduct, ethical shamelessness, corruption, incompetence and abuse of office, desecration of the office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and bringing the legal profession and the rank of SAN to disrepute and ridicule.”
Aondoakaa reportedly defended former Benue State Governor George Akume in a case involving allegations of corruption.
He was said to have asked the Supreme Court to nullify the Act establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and dissolve the commission.
"After the appointment of Aondoakaa as the AGF and contrary to the ethics of the legal profession, he failed to withdraw the case or his representation in the case from the Supreme Court, hence the case stood as being prosecuted by the AGF against himself as the respondent. The AGF allowed this incongruous situation to continue for his selfish reasons until the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, struck out the case,” the petition stated.
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