A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, has threatened to sue the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, over an alleged defamatory publication against the Nigerian Law Society, NLS.
Ayorinde is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the NLS, a professional association of lawyers which the CAC says is operating without registration.
The emergence of the NLS is also being opposed by the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, the umbrella body of Nigerian lawyers.
Recently, the Registrar General of the CAC, Hussain Ishaq Magaji, SAN, had written to the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, seeking approval to prosecute the Nigerian Law Society and other corporate entities operating without registration in the country.
The CAC had also, on 6th August, 2024, in a publication titled ‘Public Notice Status of Nigeria Law Society’, stated that the NLS is not registered, while describing its activities as illegal.
However, in a letter dated 12th August 2024, and acknowledged on 16th August 2024, Ayorinde demanded a retraction of the publication in seven days.
Ayorinde, in the letter, noted that he was the 1st plaintiff in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/482/2023 between Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, SAN, OFR & 5 Others V. Corporate Affairs Commission, which was decided on 15th December, 2023.
He accused the CAC of refusing to register the NLS as ordered by the court.
Parts of the letter read: “In the said judgment, the Honourable Court clearly granted all the Plaintiff’s claims and specifically directed your Commission to register the Nigerian Law Society.
“Your Commission has failed, refused and or neglected to obey the judgment of the Federal High Court and whose judgment remains extant even though you have filed an appeal on record. It is also noted that despite filing the same appeal, you have not secured any order to stay the direction in the judgement.
“It is therefore shocking that you will cause the publication under reference to be made despite the above.
“In the said publication, you alluded as follows: That you have not registered the Nigerian Law Society. That the members of the Nigerian Law Society including my humble self are committing an offence in breach of the law. That the activities of the Nigerian Law Society including my humble self are illegal.”
Ayorinde said the CAC Registrar General misled the public by “deliberately” failing to make any reference or allusion to the existence of the judgment in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/482/2023.
Stressing that the claims made by the CAC against the NLS are untrue, false and misleading, Ayorinde asked the Registrar General to issue a public letter of apology to retract and correct the alleged defamatory publication.
Ayorinde warned that if the retraction is not published within seven days of the receipt of the letter, he would have no other choice than to sue the CAC Registrar General in court to compel the retraction.
The NLS chairman, who noted that the publication lowered his standing in the society as a reputable legal practitioner, added that in the event that the retraction was not made, he will seek the sum of N5 billion as monetary damages, jointly and severally from the Registrar General and the CAC.