A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has convicted and fined a 55-year-old man, John Nwawuto Anoruo, for impersonating a legal practitioner and using a forged Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) seal.
Justice A.M. Lawal delivered the judgment on Tuesday after Anoruo pleaded guilty to a two-count charge filed by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The defendant, who operated a legal and educational consultancy in Ikorodu, Lagos, was arrested by EFCC operatives on April 20, 2026, following investigations into a petition he submitted to the anti-graft agency on behalf of clients against Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited.
The EFCC said investigations uncovered that the petition, dated September 22, 2025, and a subsequent letter withdrawing the complaint, dated March 5, 2026, carried a forged NBA seal.
During interrogation, Anoruo admitted obtaining the counterfeit seal from a business centre in Lagos.
Investigators also discovered that although Anoruo claimed to have earned a law degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2018 through evening classes, he never attended the Nigerian Law School and was never called to the Nigerian Bar.
One of the charges accused him of fraudulently using a counterfeit NBA seal bearing Supreme Court enrolment number SCN037400 with the intention of presenting it as genuine.
The second charge alleged that he falsely represented himself to the EFCC as a qualified legal practitioner entitled to practise law in Nigeria while using an NBA seal belonging to another lawyer.
Following his guilty plea, EFCC prosecutor Saadatu Mahmud Yabo called investigating officer Umar Faruk Ahmad to present the facts of the case.
Ahmad told the court that the investigation commenced after the EFCC received a petition from legal practitioner Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, who alleged that Anoruo had filed a petition against him and his law firm while falsely claiming to be a lawyer.
According to the witness, checks confirmed that the Supreme Court enrolment number on the NBA seal used by the defendant belonged to another legal practitioner.
He added that Anoruo admitted purchasing the counterfeit seal and confirmed he had never been admitted to the Nigerian Bar.
The investigator further disclosed that Anoruo earned N7.5 million from the legal brief at the centre of the case.
He said the defendant paid N1.5 million to a qualified lawyer to handle the matter on his behalf while presenting himself as the legal representative.
Ahmad also testified that when Anoruo honoured the EFCC’s invitation, he arrived wearing a legal practitioner’s attire.
A subsequent search of his residence led to the recovery of the forged NBA seal bearing another lawyer’s Supreme Court enrolment number.
The prosecution tendered several exhibits, including the petition submitted by Olumide-Fusika, the defendant’s extra-judicial statement, correspondence between the EFCC, the Body of Benchers and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the recovered lawyer’s attire, the forged NBA seal and evidence of a N300,000 bank draft paid into the EFCC recovery account.
The defence did not object to the admissibility of the exhibits, which the court admitted as evidence.
During his plea for leniency, Anoruo told the court that he paid N2.5 million to the person who introduced the legal brief to him and another N1.5 million to the lawyer he engaged to handle the case.
His counsel, G.E. Demkemefa, urged the court to impose a fine instead of a custodial sentence, describing the defendant as a first-time offender and the breadwinner of a family comprising his wife and five children.
In his judgment, Justice Lawal convicted Anoruo on both counts and imposed a fine of N120,000 on the first count and N150,000 on the second count, bringing the total fine to N270,000 payable to the Lagos State Judiciary.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the recovered legal practitioner’s attire and the forged NBA seal to the federal government through the EFCC.
