Lawyers Question Conferment Of SAN On Wole Olanipekun’s Son

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Wole_olanipekun_chambersThe LPPC  approved Dr. Oladapo Olumide Olanipekun along with 20 others for formal investiture as SAN, the highest rank for practicing Nigerian attorneys.

In separate interviews with SaharaReporters, three Nigerian lawyers alleged that the LPPC erred in awarding the SAN rank to Olabode, whose father, Wole Olanipekun, is one of Nigeria’s most prominent attorneys. The older Olanipekun was a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

“I don’t believe the criteria for awarding the rank of SAN was met by Oladapo [Olanipekun],” one Abuja-based lawyer, himself a SAN, told SR correspondent on condition of anonymity.

Another lawyer, who is not a SAN yet, dismissed Oladapo Olanipekun’s elevation as “a case of sheer nepotism,” adding that the LPPC “has been known for such nepotistic practice in the past.”

Oladapo Olanipekun holds a PhD in law,his linkedin page states he studied for his PhD between 2005 and 2009. The website of his father’s law firm, which features his short bio did not list his date of graduation from the University of Lagos and the Nigerian law school, according to SR.

All three lawyers who spoke to SR correspondent said they were certain that the younger Olanipekun did not fulfill the requirement that each candidate for SAN must have had an unbroken legal practice for at least ten years.

“There are many other distinguished lawyers who have met that 10-year threshold and who were invited among the fifty candidates earlier shortlisted for the SAN honor. They were all interviewed in July, but left out when Olabode was chosen, despite the fact that he has not practiced for ten years,” one critic of this year’s roster of SAN said.

The younger Olanipekun reportedly began practicing law at his father’s chamber, Wole Olanipekun and Co, shortly after completing his PhD in law in 2009.

The list of latest SAN consists of 18 active lawyers, one of them a woman. The list also includes three university professors of law. (SR. Image: SR).

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