A ‘Lawyer’ is a professional having completed tertiary educational training and having been called to the Nigerian bar upon completion of his mandatory Law School Course at the Nigerian Law School. A Lawyer by virtue of his profession, is an advocate for justice, equity and good conscience. The legal practice in all careers in the legal profession is a means for him to earn his earnings by virtue of the professional Rules. Normally and as has been thought of about the legal profession, the legal profession is and or ought to be lucrative however, in reality, the reverse is almost the case in Nigeria with a high number of Nigerian lawyers who struggle and hustle to survive especially having regard to the economic pressures and hardships in Nigeria at this moment. Lawyers in their numbers are being called to bar yearly or even quarterly as Lawyers. Nevertheless, all the above about the Nigerian Lawyer, in my humble view, the Nigerian lawyer remains an endangered specie of professionals. Hence, this paper.
In my candid opinion and of course, from personal experiences, in Nigeria, Nigerian lawyers should be very careful in receiving client briefing so as not to become a victim of kidnapping, robbery and others. There are times that an unknown person might pretend to be a prospective client and invite a lawyer for a meeting or for a brief (the fact that the brief is to be taken in the lawyer’s law office is not even an exemption from likely vulnerability) though having the meeting in the lawyer’s office or any other trusted location is advisable.
Also, a Nigerian lawyer should be very careful in giving attention to some persons who hang around some public offices and other places of businesses with the promise of being a link for the Nigerian lawyer to secure retainership briefs with the authorities or persons in charge with ease. These kinds of persons only extort the lawyer with no promised positive result! Some lawyers might be lucky, while some might be unlucky to secure such retainership, yet, these impostors would not allow the lawyer to rest from incessant demand for money!
Furthermore, a Nigerian lawyer being a likely endangered specie should also be careful in meeting a colleague at a questionable and suspicious location. Recently, a man called me (precisely around or at about 8pm on the 7th day of December, 2023) who identified himself as a lawyer with all his descriptions to fulfill all doubts that he is a known person to me and informed me about his intention to offer me a brief: one is a proposed fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Kaduna State; and the other one is a Court of Appeal of Nigeria brief to be appealed against a decision of an Ilorin High Court. He asked me to meet him in Mararaba, Nasarawa State (while I reside in Abuja i.e. outside my immediate location). He asked me to meet him in a hotel within the Mararaba axis and that I should call him when I arrive the location and he would come out to take me into the hotel for the meeting with his purported client in attendance (I even heard him talking to the said man and addressing him as ‘Chairman’ while also talking to him in Hausa language). He asked me to meet him by 8am of Friday, the 8th day of December, 2023. When I thought about this invitation for a meeting and its surrounding questionable circumstances, some thoughts came to my mind: assuming this person is truly a lawyer as he has informed me (whereas, he ought to know that the manner of arrangement for the meeting with me (despite that I and he do not have cordial relationship to that extent) was improper to say the least); will a lawyer make such an arrangement that I should meet him with a Client outside my location?! Why is the meeting fixed in Mararaba, Nasarawa State and in a hotel (outside my location or jurisdiction)?! Why was the meeting not fixed in his law firm whereas, if it were to be the lawyer as being claimed, the said lawyer as far as my record could serve me, has his law office within the Central Business District, Abuja, why then, the proposed meeting scheduled in a hotel that I do not even know?! Why could the meeting not be fixed in my law office in Abuja?! Could the said lawyer’s number not have been hacked or cloned?! Could the person not be an impostor who is either a kidnapper or an armed robber or a scammer?! Will I not be vulnerable and susceptible to attacks by some evil doers if I have to honour such meeting at an unknown location and outside my jurisdiction with unidentified person(s)?! Also, a lawyer that I know would hardly sacrifice lucrative briefs for his colleague (as it is always said that ‘money is never enough for a rich man’). So, would the said purported lawyer be honestly giving me the opportunity of having the briefs from his purported client?! A host of other questions arose in my mind and imaginations! When I discussed this scheduled meeting with someone, and asked for view about the proposed meeting and all the surrounding questionable circumstances, we arrived at a conclusion of me not honouring such invitation! More so, I was once a victim of cyber-fraudsters or scammers (when I was still a young lawyer (and being a novice of their criminal tactics) sometimes around the year 2018 or thereabout) who had used this same method or calling me impersonating a lawyer-friend that we served together in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the year 2014-Batch- C. I was extorted of the sum of N35,000.00, then (and only God intervened as I would have spent more than that amount, which I even had to take a loan from someone then) all in the name of promising that as a friend, he had a job offer for me with Shell Petroleum Company, through an uncle of his (normally, I do not fall for all those kinds of tricks but he caught me that time using my friend at the National Youth Service Corps with all the details you could imagine to defraud me and scam me)! I later confirmed from a police friend that that was their criminal tactics and that even he had been a victim of such some few years back! So, I was in no doubt that whoever the said person might be (a lawyer or an impostor or a scammer), he should come to my office to have the meeting with me rather than I visit such person as scheduled! Therefore, I refused to honour the meeting! The thoughts about a Nigerian lawyer, especially the young lawyer (especially the hustling and struggling one), being an endangered and specie arose in my mind! Perhaps too, other lawyers could have fallen victim at different occasions! I decided to narrate my personal experience in this regard so that other lawyer would learn and be vigilant, especially the young lawyer!
Finally, I hope this paper guide every lawyer that reads it in being vigilant and protected from any vulnerability from suspected criminal elements. Also, I hope that lawyers as professionals would be able to design unquestionable and unsuspicious means of engaging their professional colleagues whenever the need for such privacy or meeting or engagement occurs! Kindly reach out to me via my contact supplied below to narrate your experiences in this regard so that I could learn from yours experience and other colleagues too could learn! May God Almighty continue to protect and guide us all aright!
Email: hameed_ajibola@yahoo.com
