The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee has withdrawn the nomination of a lawyer, Ikhide Ehighelua, for the coveted rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria and barred him from applying for the rank for the next five years starting from 2019.
The decision taken at the LPPC’s emergency meeting on Thursday came barely four days to his swearing-in along with 30 others already scheduled to take place at the Supreme Court in Abuja on Monday.
The LPPC, in a statement issued late Thursday by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court and Secretary to the committee, Mrs. Hadizatu Mustapha, said it took the decision following a “meritorious” petition accusing him of obtaining an ex parte order of interim injunction in a manner that violated the guidelines for the conferment of SAN rank.
The LPPC in its findings specifically concluded that the lawyer “knowingly engaged in gross abuse of court process” in relation to obtaining the interim court order.
“That Ikhide Ehighelua Esquire being an officer in the temple of justice and an aspirant to the exalted position of Senior Advocate of Nigeria has conducted himself in a manner which is clearly in contravention with the provisions of paragraph 22(2) (a) & (c) and 23(a),(b),(c)& (d) of the 2018 Guidelines of the Conferment of Senior Advocate of Nigeria,” the LPPC stated.
