Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Mr Abdulrasheed Bawa, has commended the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) for elevating two staff: Sylvanus Tahir and Rotimi Oyedepo and a private lawyer with the agency, Wahab Shittu, to the coveted rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
The three lawyers are prosecuting for the foremost anti-graft agency.
Bawa gave the commendation on Friday while commenting on the decision of the LPPC that approved the elevation of 62 lawyers, including three EFCC’s prosecutors, to the rank of SAN.
According to Bawa, the LPPC acted rightly for recognising the sterling qualities of the two prosecutors, stressing that their elevation was well-deserved.
Bawa particularly expressed delight with the standard of law library in the EFCC, which he described as well-equipped, competitive and second to none.
The EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, also quoted Bawa as saying that, “We are committed to the development of legal practice in Nigeria through our painstaking equipping of our law library and adequate training of our lawyers.
“The LPPC has taken very informed decisions by the elevation of the three prosecutors. I’m positive that many more will still be elevated”
Shittu, Tahir and Oyedepo were, on Thursday, approved to be elevated to the rank of SAN.
Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Hajo Bello, in a statement on Thursday, said their elevation was based on a decision reached at the LPPC’s 154th plenary session.
According to Bello, “The rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is awarded as a mark of excellence to members of the legal profession who have distinguished themselves as advocates and academics”.
The three EFCC prosecutors, alongside 59 others, will be sworn in on Monday, November 21, 2022.
Tahir heads the Legal and Prosecution Unit at the EFCC’s corporate headquarters. He is renowned for securing convictions of politically-exposed persons for the EFCC. Resourceful, unassuming and versed in the pyrotechnics of law, he is a well-regarded prosecutor difficult to beat in any trial.
Oyedepo also heads the Chairman’s Monitoring Unit in the Lagos Command of the EFCC. A crack prosecutor with shining credentials, his brilliant appearance at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, upheld the constitutionality of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offence Act, which now empowers the Commission to confiscate properties suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
