Court upholds the imprisonment of former Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joseph Nwobike

The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, on Thursday, December 19th dismissed an appeal by a former Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joseph Nwobike.

Joseph Nwobike(Front right)

Nwobike had approached the appellate court in a suit challenging his conviction by the Lagos State High Court. 

He was convicted in April 2018 of attempting to pervert the course of justice by inducing court registrars to ensure that his cases were assigned to his preferred judges so he could obtain favourable judgments.

Justice Raliat Adebiyi convicted the lawyer on 12 counts and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment. Nwobike was later stripped of his SAN rank by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee following his conviction for corruption.

Displeased with the lower court’s verdict, he proceeded to appeal the matter. 

However, the Court of Appeal, in its judgment on Thursday (today), dismissed Nwobike’s appeal, holding that it lacked merit.

The appellate court affirmed his conviction on counts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17.