Abuja, Nigeria – A legal practitioner based in Abuja, Chuks Nwachukwu, has been fined N20 million by the Federal High Court in Abuja. The penalty was imposed following a lawsuit he filed on behalf of five Abuja residents seeking to halt the May 29 inauguration of President Bola Tinubu.
In his judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo struck out the suit, stating that the plaintiffs lacked the necessary locus standi (legal standing) to bring the matter before the court. The judge further ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that a similar subject was not already pending before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which was in progress.
Consequently, Justice Ekwo ordered the lawyer to pay N10 million each to the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, listed as the first and second defendants in the case. The judge specified that no further action would be taken in the matter until Nwachukwu settled the N20 million fine.
Justice Ekwo also criticized some alleged media comments made by Nwachukwu and stated that he would have considered an additional order to bar the lawyer from practicing law. Instead, he directed the court registrar to forward all relevant documents to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee to assess Nwachukwu’s fitness to continue practicing the profession.
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The judge further instructed that the court order be served on the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Nigerian Bar Association.
The five residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Anyaegbunam Okoye, David Adzer, Jeffrey Uche, Osang Paul, and Chibuike Nwanchukwu, had filed the suit seeking an injunction to prevent Tinubu’s inauguration as President, alleging that he had not obtained at least 25 percent of the votes cast in the FCT during the February 25 presidential election.
Justice Ekwo remarked that after reviewing the affidavit attached to the suit, it was evident that Nwachukwu had used the residents as proxies to file the lawsuit. The judge criticized this unprofessional conduct, stating that lawyers like Nwachukwu engaged in such practices, using innocent citizens as fronts in personal cases, which undermines the reputation of the legal system.
The judge concluded that the action was reckless and frivolous, and displayed a lack of understanding of elementary principles of law relating to the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act of 2022. He emphasized that the aim of the lawsuit, which sought to plunge the country into constitutional anarchy and potential bloodshed, should be condemned in the strongest terms.
The fine imposed on Nwachukwu serves as a strong deterrent against such ventures and highlights the importance of upholding professional standards in the legal profession.
Source – punchng
