61 Abuja lawyers named notaries public

He administered oath on the lawyers who were appointed notaries public by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen. The rite was held at the ceremonial court hall of the FCT High Court. Amongst the appointees are Prof. Maxwell Gidado (SAN) ,Silas Joseph Onu and Mr Ocholi Okutepa. Gidado, who spoke on behalf of the newly sworn-in notaries public, pledged that they would discharge their duties with utmost responsibility. On what the appointment means to him, Ocholi said: “I am delighted to take progressive steps in the legal profession. I set a target for myself that as soon as I have the minimum qualification to apply for the appointment I would so do. “This I did sometime last year having paid my practicing fees consistently for seven years and maintained an active practice in courts. “Graciously the Hon. CJN found me worthy of the appointment. It is more responsibility and more expectation on me as a person and I take that as a mark of progress” A notary public of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary’s main functions are to administer oaths and affirmations, take affidavits and statutory declarations, witness and authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents, take acknowledgments of deeds and other conveyances, protest notes and bills of exchange, provide notice of foreign drafts, prepare marine or ship’s protests in cases of damage, provide exemplifications and notarial copies, and perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction. Any such act is known as a notarisation, according to Wikipedia.]]>