The Lagos State High Court in Ikeja yesterday condemned a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Nwobike, to one month’s imprisonment for trying to pervert the course of justice.

The court convicted Nwobike of 12 counts bordering on the offence, sentenced him to one month’s imprisonment on each of the 12 counts but said the sentences would run concurrently.

Justice Raliat Adebiyi, who pronounced the verdict, said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission proved beyond reasonable doubts that the SAN was in constant communication with court officials to influence the assignment of his cases to his preferred judges.

The EFCC first arraigned Nwobike on five counts on March 9, 2016 but the charge was amended on two different occasions with the prosecution eventually increasing the counts to 18.

In the charges, the EFCC accused the SAN of offering monetary gratification to judges of the Federal High Court to influence them to give judgments in his favor.

For example, he was accused of giving N750,000 to Justice Mohammed Yunusa, while he had cases pending before the judge.

Nwobike was also accused of having constant communication, through text messages, with the registrar of Justice Musa Kurya, Mrs. Helen Ogunleye, alleging that the SAN, on one occasion, gave an envelope, believed to be containing money, to Ogunleye to give to the judge, and followed up with a message that the registrar should tell “him to discharge the order.”

The EFCC said Nwobike gave Ogunleye the sum of N250, 000 on the same day, for her brother who secured an admission to study medicine in a US university.

Nwobike was also accused of having constant communication with a clerk of the Federal High Court, one Mr. Jide, instructing him to ensure that his cases were assigned to specific judges, especially Justice Yunusa.

In her judgment, Justice Adebiyi said though it was established that Nwobike truly gave N750,000 to Justice Yunusa, the anti-graft agency failed to prove the intent behind the money, since Nwobike claimed that it was to assist the judge whose mother had a kidney problem and needed to undergo dialysis.

The EFCC said Nwobike gave Ogunleye the sum of N250, 000 on the same day, for her brother who secured an admission to study medicine in a US university.

Nwobike was also accused of having constant communication with a clerk of the Federal High Court, one Mr. Jide, instructing him to ensure that his cases were assigned to specific judges, especially Justice Yunusa.

In her judgment, Justice Adebiyi said though it was established that Nwobike truly gave N750, 000 to Justice Yunusa, the anti-graft agency failed to prove the intent behind the money, since Nwobike claimed that it was to assist the judge whose mother had a kidney problem and needed to undergo dialysis.

Justice Adebiyi noted that all the rulings in a particular case filed by Nwobike before Justice Yunusa went in Nwobike’s favour.

The judge rejected Nwobike’s claim that the text message he sent to Justice Musa Kurya’s registrar, Ogunleye, reading “tell him to discharge the order,” was sent in error.

Pronouncing Nwobike guilty of attempts to pervert the course of justice, the judge held, “The court found that the prosecution was able to prove beyond reasonable doubts that the defendant, by paying the sum of N750,000 into the account of Honourable Justice Yunusa on the 19th of March, 2015, attempted to pervert the course of justice.

In his allocutus, the defence counsel, Mr. Wale Akoni (SAN), pleaded with Justice Adebiyi to temper justice with mercy, urging the judge to note that Nwobike was a first-time offender and a senior member of the Bar, whose law firm had many lawyers in its employ.

Reacting, the prosecutor, Oyedepo, said the EFCC had no record of any previous crime by Nwobike, but he noted that Section 97(3) under which the SAN was convicted attracted a minimum of two years’ imprisonment.

But Akoni argued that the kind of sentence to impose was subject to the judge’s discretion.

The judge rose for a while and upon her return said Nwobike’s culpability was high, adding that a custodian sentence rather than a fine what was required to serve as a deterrent to other lawyers.

She sentenced him to 30 days’ imprisonment on each of the 12 counts but said the sentences would run concurrently.