The Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has convicted and fined a 55-year-old man, John Nwawuto Anoruo, ₦270,000 for impersonating a legal practitioner and fraudulently using a forged Nigerian Bar Association seal bearing another lawyer’s Supreme Court enrolment number.
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Justice Abdulfattah Molawale Lawal delivered the judgment on Tuesday after Anoruo pleaded guilty to two counts bordering on impersonation and the possession and use of a counterfeit NBA seal.
The court imposed a fine of ₦120,000 on the first count and ₦150,000 on the second count, bringing the total fine to ₦270,000, payable to the Lagos State Judiciary.
Justice Lawal also ordered the forfeiture of the legal practitioner’s attire and forged NBA seal recovered from the convict to the Federal Government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
According to the EFCC, Anoruo operated a legal and educational consultancy in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State despite never attending the Nigerian Law School or being called to the Nigerian Bar.
The commission said the case originated from a petition dated September 22, 2025, which Anoruo submitted on behalf of some clients against the management of Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited.
Investigators subsequently discovered that the petition and a later letter withdrawing it, dated March 5, 2026, carried a counterfeit NBA seal.
The Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the EFCC arraigned Anoruo before the court on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, following his arrest on April 20.
One of the charges accused him of fraudulently using a counterfeit NBA seal bearing Supreme Court enrolment number SCN037400 with the intention that it would be accepted as genuine.
The second count alleged that Anoruo falsely presented himself to the EFCC as a legal practitioner qualified to practise law in Nigeria and unlawfully used the NBA seal bearing the enrolment number of another lawyer.
Anoruo pleaded guilty when the charges were read to him.
Following the guilty plea, prosecuting counsel Saadatu Mahmud Yabo called EFCC investigating officer Umar Faruk Ahmad to review the facts of the case before the court.
Ahmad testified that the commission received a petition on April 15, 2026, from Senior Advocate of Nigeria Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, alleging that Anoruo had written a petition against him and his law firm while falsely presenting himself as a practising lawyer.
The investigating officer said inquiries conducted by the commission confirmed that the Supreme Court enrolment number appearing on the seal used by Anoruo belonged to a different legal practitioner.
He told the court that Anoruo admitted obtaining the counterfeit seal from an undisclosed business centre in Lagos and confirmed that he had never been called to the Nigerian Bar.
According to the EFCC, Anoruo claimed that he obtained a law degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2018 through evening classes but admitted that he did not attend the Nigerian Law School.
Ahmad further testified that Anoruo earned ₦7.5 million from the legal brief that led to the investigation and paid ₦1.5 million to a qualified legal practitioner to handle the matter on his behalf.
The court also heard that Anoruo arrived at the EFCC office dressed in legal practitioner’s attire when he honoured the commission’s invitation.
A subsequent search of his residence reportedly led to the recovery of the counterfeit NBA seal bearing another lawyer’s enrolment number.
The prosecution tendered several exhibits, including the petition submitted by Olumide-Fusika, Anoruo’s extra-judicial statement, correspondence exchanged between the EFCC, the Body of Benchers and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and the responses received from the institutions.
Other exhibits included the recovered legal attire, the forged NBA seal and evidence that Anoruo paid ₦300,000 into the EFCC recovery account through a bank draft.
Defence counsel G.E. Demkemefa did not object to the admissibility of the documents and items, leading the court to admit and mark them as exhibits.
In his plea for leniency, Anoruo told the court that he paid ₦2.5 million to the person who introduced him to the legal brief and another ₦1.5 million to the qualified lawyer who eventually handled the matter.
The prosecution urged the court to convict him in accordance with his guilty plea and order the forfeiture of all items used in committing the offences.
Delivering judgment, Justice Lawal held that Anoruo’s guilty plea established his culpability on the two counts.
“In view of the plea of the defendant, the defendant is hereby convicted on the two counts,” the judge ruled.
Demkemefa subsequently appealed to the court to temper justice with mercy, describing Anoruo as a first-time offender who cooperated with investigators and did not waste the time of the commission or the court.
The defence lawyer also told the court that the convict was the breadwinner of a family comprising his wife and five children and urged the judge to impose a fine rather than a custodial sentence.
Justice Lawal consequently imposed the combined fine of ₦270,000 and ordered that the forged NBA seal and legal practitioner’s attire be forfeited to the Federal Government through the EFCC.
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