Convicted Nwobike freed after one month in jail

The convicted Joseph Nwobike SAN has been released on Monday ahead of Democray Day from Ikoyi prison, Lagos after serving one month in jail. Nwobike was conferred the title of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria which is the highest rank a lawyer can aspire to in 2010. While serving the prison term his blood pressure […]

The convicted Joseph Nwobike SAN has been released on Monday ahead of Democray Day from Ikoyi prison, Lagos after serving one month in jail.

Nwobike was conferred the title of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria which is the highest rank a lawyer can aspire to in 2010.

While serving the prison term his blood pressure went up to 200 high and had to be rushed to hospital.

Other Ikoyi prison inmates said that Nwobike was not himself while serving his jail term.

Justice Raliat Adebiyi of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos State High sentenced Joseph Nwobike to one month in prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Nwobike has been practicing law for about 20 years before  the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, (EFCC) preferred criminal charges against him, in which he was found guilty and convicted.

He offered N750,000 and N300,000 as gratifications to Justice Mohammed Yunusa and Hylladzira Nganjiwa both judges at the Lagos Division of Federal High Court.

Justice Raliat Adebiyi, said that Nwobike’s level of culpability was high and was carried out with impunity repeatedly over a period of time.

His trial and conviction is coming on the heels of the trials of other senior lawyers of the same rank – Godwin Obla and Rickey Tarfa on similar charges.

Also, Mohammed Yunusa and Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, the federal high court judges whom Nwobike paid N750, 000 and N300,000 respectively are also facing criminal trials.

The EFCC had claimed that Nwobike offered the judges the money in an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Nwobike did not deny giving Justice Yunusa the said amount, but he said he gave the money “for the specific purpose of helping the (sick) mother of the gentleman (Yunusa),” adding that he and the judge have been close right from when he was a counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice.

For Nganjiwa, Nwobike said at the time he deposited N300,000 in the account of the company belonging to the judge, he had no pending case before him.

He added that he had known the judge since 1995 when Nganjiwa was a legal officer at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

With the latest development, Nwobike can no longer practice law as a legal practitioner and will lose his privileges as a SAN.