Basketball
Disgraced and U.S.-adjudged deceptive legal representatives such as Femi Gbajabiamila, Owolabi Salis, Aloysius Ejimakor and Neda Imasuen are totally free to practice in Nigeria although they bring a large reputational problem, the Nigerian Bar Association informs Peoples Gazette.
Mr Gbajabiamila is the chief of personnel to President Bola Tinubu, who himself has a brush with the U.S. authorities over drug dealing.
NBA representative Prince Azubuike explained The Gazette’s exposé of Nigerian legal representatives disbarred and suspended in the U.S. for a number of corrupt practices as “troubling”. Messrs Salis, Ejimakor, and Imasuen are NBA members.
“They had double practice licences: one in the United States, one in the Nigerian Bar. Having actually been discovered guilty in the U.S. Bar and proper sanctions meted out to them, that does not move to the Nigerian circumstance. They are still properly called, other than another disciplinary procedures will be brought out in view of that. It does not work that method when it comes to disciplinary concerns. It’s regional to the jurisdiction where that problem took place,” Mr Azubuike described.
The NBA representative stated that although the disbarment and suspension of Nigerian legal representatives abroad on the premises of deceitful activities and practices impacts their track record without impacting their licenses to practice in Nigeria, it rubs off on the nation’s wider credibility and other people in the more comprehensive point of view.
“Generally, it will impact their character since it’s reputational. For you to have actually been discovered desiring in expert misbehavior reveals that there is a character deficit on your part. And it needs to disrupt everyone, not simply the legal occupation, however every resident,” the NBA representative stated. “For example, the chief of personnel to the president had comparable disciplinary concerns in the U.S., however that didn’t impact his practice here in Nigeria. As it worries his practice in the U.S., yes, there is a problem with that, simply like these names you discussed. Here in Nigeria, no, it is not the exact same. The very same uses to the Dental Council of Nigeria and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. The majority of them that were having problems in other jurisdictions like the UK, disciplinary problems, it didn’t impact their practice as it worries their occupation here in Nigeria.”
Mr Azubuike, nevertheless, acknowledged the civilian casualties.
“Again, it’s reputational. If you now go to another jurisdiction and they raise the concern, you have a character concern or reputational problem in your previous jurisdiction, it goes a long method to effect on your practice, how customers see you, how your associates in that other jurisdiction see you,” he discussed. “It impacts it, no doubt, however it does not rob you of your practice in this jurisdiction. These 2 differences need to be plainly developed, you understand, identified.”
According to the NBA representative, no law forces or needs a legal representative to self-report any disciplinary action taken versus him in a foreign jurisdiction to the NBA. He confessed that “the possibility of such a legal representative defrauding his Nigerian customers is likewise possible”.
“NBA will likewise require to do severe deal with regard to ethical and expert problems in the legal occupation,” specified Mr Azubuike.
In 2023, The Gazette reported how Mr Gbajabiamila’s law licence was ended by the State Bar of Georgia in the U.S. over his corruption and ethical lapses. Mr Gbajabiamila confessed to taking $25,000 from his customer.
In 2025, The Gazette reported how Mr Imasuen, Edo South senator, masterminded a vast bank break-in in the U.S. before leaving to Nigeria to pursue an effective profession in politics. New york city disbarred Mr Imasuen for life after he defrauded his customer.
Mr Salis, a U.S.-based attorney who acquired worldwide recognition as the very first Nigerian to take a trip to area on June 29, was arraigned in 2023 and disbarred by the New York State Supreme Court over a myriad of grievances from customers who implicated him of scamming them out of 10s of countless dollars.
The Board of Immigration Appeals had actually likewise dismissed the disbarment appeal by Mr Salis for scamming migration customers, exploiting their desperation to stay in the U.S. to fleece them of 10s of countless dollars.
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