One Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu who was arrested by the Nigerian Police for allegedly impersonating a legal practitioner has just escaped.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/TheNigerialawyer-WhatsApp-Channel1.jpg")
The said Richard was said to have acted as a soldier, claiming to be a legal adviser to the military. He also posed as a pastor, and have been engaged in defrauding people and the forging of certificates and the NBA stamp and seal.
Raising the alarm, lawyers are asking how he was able to forge the NBA stamp and seal, wondering what the NBA is doing to detect and flush such quacks out of the system.
Below read the full story
THE FAKE AMONG US: THE BASTARDISATION OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION BY QUACKS AND A CALL TO FLUSH THEM OUT OF THE PROFESSION.
The Legal Profession is a noble, honourable and learned profession. In every modern democratic welfare State, the legal profession is a broad concept: It includes not merely the Profession which is practiced in Courts, but also covers law teaching, law research, etc. It has quite a number of parts. The Bench is one, and the Bar is another.
Therefore, any person who aspires to become a member of the legal profession must acquire legal education which is the repository of both academic and professional legal knowledge and skill which makes the lawyer who he/ she is.
Legal education in Nigeria is in two sectors. There is the University education which leads to the award of a degree in Law. There is also the Law School which is involved in the training of Nigerian lawyers. Whereas the University education provides basic academic education, the Law School provides vocational education of an apprenticeship nature leading to the practice of the Law.
Sequel to the above, to become a member of the legal profession (lawyer) in Nigeria, you must do the following:
A. You must study law at accredited University and successfully obtain law degree ( LLB).
B. You must have proceeded to the Nigerian Law School for at least one year and successfully passed the Bar examination thereby obtain your BL.
C. You must be called ( admitted) to the Nigerian Bar followed by enrollment in the Supreme Court as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigerian thereby becoming an authomatic member of the Nigerian Bar Association which is a professional Association of lawyers in Nigeria.
If you don’t meet the above-mentioned requirements of becoming a lawyer and you begin to practice law or parade yourself as a lawyer, then you are a fake or quack lawyer. So, when you practice the law as a quack, you are bastardizing and/or inflicting great damage on the Profession.
One Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu is a fake or quack lawyer. He is the person dressed on black suit and black long sleeve ( dressed like a pastor) and the person on the left side hand of Paul Usoro in the picture taken with Paul Usoro.
The said Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu came to Delta State (from Ekiti State) sometime in January 2019, and began to practice law and/or to parade himself as a lawyer. He told us that he was called to the bar in 2012, later he changed it to 2013. We later discovered that his purportedly being called to the Bar in 2012 or 2013 is false, not true.
However, before we discovered that he was a fake lawyer, he was appearing in Courts. He appeared in Both the Federal High Court in Asaba and Warri, both in Delta State. He also appeared in various High Courts and Magistrate’s Courts in Delta State.
In fact, he collected the sum of two hundred and ninty thousand Naira ( N290,000.00) from one Dr. Moses M. Adagbabiri on the ground that he wanted to write a petition to the Department of State Security ( DSS) Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, against Dr. Adagbabiri’s tenant who is a Naval officer and who had refused to vacate the premises.
The said Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu also told Dr. Adagbabiri that he had also petitioned the latter tenant to the Orodje of Okpe, the Chairman of Sapele Bar, The Nigerian police, zone 5, Benin City, etc and gave Dr Adagbabiri a copy of the supposed petition which has a letter headed paper of ‘R SQUARE LEGAL FIRM’ .
The Said Eberechukwu, in order to also defraud Dr Adagbabiri’s tenant, told the tenant that his Landlord, Dr Adagbabiri, had agreed that the issue be settled. So he fraudulently wrote two terms of settlement: one is titled ‘CONSENSUS ADIDEM’, while the other is titled ‘TERMS OF SETTLEMENT’. And forged the signature of both parties, the landlord and the tenant. This he did without the Consent or Knowledge of Dr. Adagbabiri.
When Dr. Adagbabiri became aware of the fraudulent manipulation perpetuated by Eberechukwu, he briefed P. M. Obiagba, Esq, of P. M. OBIAGBA, ESQ & ASSOCIATES who wrote a petition against him(Eberechukwu) to the police. He was subsequently arrested by the police. At the police station, he insisted that he was a lawyer and that he graduated from Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria and that he was called to the Bar in 2013.
Thus, he was released on self recognizance and was asked to proceed to bring his credentials: his LLB CERTIFICATE, CALL CERTIFICATE, ECT. After two weeks he didn’t bring his Certificates. We, the lawyers, decided to investigate him. We called the authority of Ekiti State University and some law students in Ekiti State University, including some Lawyers whom we knew graduated from Ekiti State University at the same time he(Eberechukwu) claimed to have graduated. All the pieces of information supplied to us by the persons we called were the same: that Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu was not a lawyer though he was a Law student at the aforementioned University , he didn’t graduate as he was expelled from the University as result of having consistent and persistent carry overs.
Armed with the above pieces of information, we called him to produce his credentials at the Law Office of P. M. Obiagba and he told us that he was coming. While waiting for him to come, we invited the police. He finally came to the aforesaid office which is housed by two storey buildings. After we have questioned him, and confirmed that he is a quack or fake lawyer, we asked the police arrest him.
As the police was about to put handcuffs in his hand, he quickly forced himself out the office and jumped down from the aforesaid two storey buildings and ran away.
After he had escaped, we opened the bag he had left behind, and we saw fake and forged call to Bar certificates, fake Ekiti State LLB Certificate and R SQUARE LEGAL FIRM’ LETTER HEADED PAPER which shows that the Head office of non-existent law firm is at No 28 Adesua Shopping Plaza, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, and the Branch offices are in Sapele, Delta State, Mbaise, Imo State and in Lagos State.
We were also informed that he was once arrested in Ekiti State for impersonating to be and/or practicing as a lawyer. He later jumped bail and relocated to Delta State. From our findings, he had been in several states in Nigeria, practising law and and whenever he was caught as a fake lawyer he would escape and relocate to another state.
Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu also acts as a fake Pastor. He told us that he is a pastor at Christ Apostolic Church(CAC) and when we enquired From the Church, the Church told us that it didn’t know him. He had defrauded several ladies of their hard earned money for he had always told them that he would pray for them to get man that would marry or get them pregnant.
Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu also impersonates to be a solder. He claimed to be a legal adviser to the Nigerian Army and a soldier: we saw solder uniform in his house.
Rechard Ebuka Eberechukwu fraudulently attended the 59th Nigerian Bar Association annual General conference which was held in Lagos this year (2019), where he took pictures with the president of the NBA so as to consolidate the the impression that he was a lawyer. At the NBA conference, he was reported to have bought several goods, especially books, with fake alerts.
The General public, please beware of the person called Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu. I don’t know if he’s Igbo by tribe because he is so fraudulently intelligent (with false intellectual appearance) that he can speak Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri languages.
Just like Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu, they are other fake or quack lawyers. What is the NBA doing to detect and flush them out of the legal profession, for they are bastardizing the profession? It seems that the introduction of the stamp and seal has not effectively help the NBA to flush out fake Lawyers.
Richard Ebuka Eberechukwu
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