The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) has said they have no hand in the so-called list of candidates for the award of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) currently published by an online newspaper, loyalnigerialawyer.com.
The committee in a statement by the Director, Information, Supreme Court, Dr Festus Akande, described the publication as false, fake, and calculated to cause confusion in the public space. He urged members of the public to discountenance the report, adding that any information, regarding the award of the rank of SAN could only emanate from the office of the LPPC Secretary/Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to a story by an online medium that goes by the name, “loyalnigerianlawyer.com” with the above caption, which is currently in circulation with a purported list of “successful candidates” that emerged after the second filtration exercise by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC).
“We wish to state clearly that the above information is fake, unofficial and untrue. It’s a mere figment of the imagination of the authors, who may ostensibly be on a mission to impugn and malign the reputation and integrity of the LPPC with a view to causing confusion and skepticism in the public space.
“The information should be discountenanced by whosoever might have come across it. For the umpteenth time, we wish to let the public know that any information, especially, issues regarding the above topic can only emanate from the office of the LPPC Secretary/Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Anything outside this official source should be disregarded.”
According to him as has been the practice, all information concerning the LPPC, especially, those bordering on the announcement of successful applicants for the award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, were published in reputable national dailies and this year’s own would not be an exception.
Akande, however, stated that the perpetrators of such illegal act would be apprehended and given appropriate sanctions to serve as deterrence to others that might be waiting in the queue to do same in the future.
“The LPPC Secretariat wishes to appeal to bloggers of various lawyers’ platforms to henceforth refrain from posting or publishing or aiding in the circulation of unauthorised materials or fake documents said to originate from Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee. The Committee may be forced to refer the conduct of such bloggers, who are legal practitioners to the appropriate disciplinary committee of Body of Benchers. A word is enough for the wise.
“On this note, we wish to inform and assure our esteemed legal community and the general public that the authentic official list of the successful applicants that emerged from the second filtration exercise by the LPPC will be made public through advertorials in the national dailies in due course”, he added.
