By Joy Onu
Former Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Elder Simon Achuba, has filed petitions before the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), seeking disciplinary action against senior lawyer, J.B. Daudu, SAN, and his law firm over alleged unethical legal practices.
Achuba is asking the CJN and LPDC to investigate what he described as deliberate abuse of legal process aimed at frustrating the enforcement of a N1.07 billion judgment debt awarded to him by the National Industrial Court and upheld by the Court of Appeal. He further urged the disciplinary bodies to either strike the senior advocate’s name off the roll of legal practitioners or suspend him from practice for a specified period.
Copies of the petitions, made available to journalists in Abuja, reveal that the dispute stems from attempts by J.B. Daudu, SAN & Co. to challenge judgments which, according to Achuba, are constitutionally final. The judgments arose from Suit No: NICN/ABJ/244/2019 between Elder Achuba Ojochide Simon and the Governor of Kogi State, among others.
Achuba maintained that the appeal filed at the Supreme Court by the law firm in a labour-related matter violates Section 243(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which makes the Court of Appeal the final court in such cases. He alleged that the appeal was filed in bad faith, solely to deny him the benefit of a lawful judgment.
According to him, the Court of Appeal, in its judgment delivered on April 29, 2024, affirmed his entitlement to unpaid salaries, travel allowances, and statutory benefits accruing from the 2017 and 2018 Kogi State budgets — amounting to N1,070,860,138.00. However, the state government reportedly rejected the claim and refused payment.
This led Achuba to seek enforcement of the judgment, a move that resulted in another ruling by the Court of Appeal on April 25, 2025, directing the National Industrial Court to proceed with enforcement. Despite this, the law firm allegedly filed further applications, including appeals and motions for stay of execution, all of which were dismissed.
In one of its rulings, the Court of Appeal not only dismissed the application but also imposed a N3 million fine on J.B. Daudu & Co., while issuing a stern warning on the professional duty of senior lawyers to uphold justice rather than obstruct it.
Achuba further accused the law firm of persistent abuse of court processes, alleging that their actions contravened provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, 2007.
He also alleged attempts to mislead the National Industrial Court through false representations. Specifically, he accused a litigation clerk in the firm, Loveth Ali, of swearing to an affidavit claiming that the matter was fixed for hearing at the Supreme Court on November 3, 2025 — a date which, according to him, was never assigned.
The former deputy governor further claimed that a staff member of the Supreme Court registry, Paul Bawa Ajiake, was involved in irregular issuance of a hearing date, even when issues were yet to be joined in the matter. He said documentary evidence, including hearing notices and text messages, were attached to his petition.
Expressing frustration, Achuba questioned why his unrelated constitutional case on impeachment, pending before the Supreme Court since 2024, had not been assigned a hearing date, while what he described as a frivolous appeal appeared to receive unusual attention.
