Professional misconduct: PDP, Oyinlola’s lawyer, Kalejaiye disbarred by Legal Disciplinary Committee

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye, has been found guilty of professional misconduct and disbarred by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).
The committee also directed the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court to delete his name from the roll (list) of legal practitioners in the country.
Kalejaiye was the counsel to the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the then governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, when the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its governorship candidate, Rauf Aregbesola, sued PDP and Oyinlola for rigging the 2007 election.
Between March and June 2008, Kalejaiye was accused of engaging in private and confidential telephone conversation with the Chairman of Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal, Justice Thomas Naron, without the knowledge of the other party.
Justice Naron has since been compulsorily retired having been found guilty of professional misconduct by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
On Thursday, a five-man panel, led by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, found that the complainant, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), represented by Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), proved its case of professional misconduct against Kalejaiye.
The committee also directed that its decision should be served on the NBA President, Chief Judges of all the states, the Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and all states’ Commissioners of Police. It also directed that the decision be published in the media.
The Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ekiti Division, Justice Paul Galinje, who read the directive, held that the prosecution proved its three-count complaint and that Kalejaiye violated the provisions of sections 1, 15, 30, 31, 34 and 55 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (2007).
Kalejaiye’s lawyer, Niyi Owolade, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Osun State, objected to the LPDC’s decision.
He said Kalejaiye would file his appeal at the Supreme Court immediately.
Under the Legal Practitioners Act (LPA), Kalejaiye has up to 28 days to appeal the decision, failing which it will become effective.
Section 11(8) of the LPA states: “A direction of the disciplinary committee under subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section shall take effect:
(a) where no appeal under this section is brought against the direction within the time limited for the appeal, on the expiration of that time;
(b) where such an appeal is brought and is withdrawn or struck out for want of prosecution, on the withdrawal or striking out of the appeal;
(c) where such an appeal is brought and is not withdrawn or struck out as aforesaid, if and when the appeal is dismissed, and shall not take effect except in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this subsection.
The LPDC rejected Kalejaiye’s defence to the effect that his telephone number was cloned, on the ground that while he was able to show, by expert evidence, that spoofing, as a general phenomenon was possible, he failed to show that spoofing was possible on the MTN network (which owned the lines with which Kalejaiye and Naron communicated) rather than demonstrating such possibility with Etisalat and Glo networks.
The committee also faulted Kalejaiye’s documentary evidence, mostly newspaper publications (including advertorial sponsored by Kalejaiye), faulting the authenticity of the call log from MTN.
The committee said it would have been more helpful had Kalejaiye applied and got his call log from MTN to prove that the one tendered by the prosecution was not the actual one.