Alleged RPC Breach: Akpata Asks Olanipekun to Step Aside as Body of Benchers’ Chairman
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata has written to the chairman of the Nigerian Body of Benchers (BoB), Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, asking him to step aside from his position as chairman of the BoB to avoid a conflict of interest. The request is coming on the heels of a move by the NBA to petition the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) over an alleged act of solicitation by Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde, a partner at Wole Olanipekun & Co. (WOC), which constitutes a breach of the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC).
In a letter dated 22nd July 2022, the NBA president brought the NBA’s petition to the LPDC to the attention of the WOC founding partner and noted that both the NBA and the BoB are by their respective mandates bound to enforce the RPC as part of the disciplinary objectives of the legal profession.
Akpata further noted that the LPDC is a Standing Committee of the BoB whose processes come
under the supervision of the Chairman of the BOB, an office which Olanipekun presently occupies.
“Against the backdrop of your partnership relationship with Ms.Ogunde, vis-a-vis the prosecution of the petition by the LPDC, it is clear, albeit unfortunate, that you have been put in a situation where your continued occupancy of the office during this period would conflict, or be reasonably interpreted to conflict, with or influence the processes of the LPDC, by fair-minded observers and right thinking members of the public, both within and outside our profession,” Akpata said.
The NBA president further stressed that by reason of Olanipekun’s close professional ties and involvement with Ogunde, it would be an infraction of the salutary principles of natural justice for the NBA’s petition to be heard by the LPDC while Olanipekun remained the chairman of the BoB, of which the LPDC is a committee.
Download the full letter written by the NBA president to Olanipekun.
