Lagos: Fake lawyer ordered to sweep and clean courts for impersonation
A 34-year-old man, Olayomi Adegbite, has been nabbed for parading himself as a lawyer despite that he had never been called to bar.
Adegbite has now landed himself in trouble.
He was reportedly caught while attempting to perfect the bail of a defendant arraigned in court for stealing.
The presiding magistrate at Court 5 of the Lagos magistrate’s court in Ogba, Mrs. Temitope Oladele suspected foul play when Adegbite couldn’t present his client’s case convincingly.
She reportedly interrogated Adegbite privately in her chambers and discovered he was never called to the bar.
“He started coming to the court in December,” one lawyer said of Adegbite.
“He would dress as a lawyer and walk around to assist defendants to perfect their bails. He was working with a lawyer. I approached him to stop parading himself as a lawyer, but he was furious with me.
“On February 24, 2017, he appeared at Court 5 to hold brief for the lawyer in a case of stealing. When the magistrate noticed that he could not apply for the defendant’s bail, she summoned him to her chambers,” the lawyer added.
Adegbite was subsequently arrested and arraigned last Thursday on one count of impersonation.
The fake lawyer was sentenced to serve 100 hours of community service by the presiding magistrate, Mrs. Davies Abegunde, after he pleaded guilty to the charge.
Part of his service is to clean magistrates’ courts in Lagos, except those in Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry.
Mrs Abegunde said Adegbite should wear inscriptions that read “I am a fake lawyer” on his front and back while cleaning the courts.
