The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee has disowned a list released by an online media platform (not ASKLEGALPALACE) said to be the list of successful candidates for the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

The Director of Press and Information at the Supreme Court, Festus Akande, expressed this position in a statement issued on Wednesday titled, ‘Re-SAN: New list of successful candidates after second filtration exercise pursuant to Rule 11 of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee Guidelines, 2018.’

The LPPC stated that the information was fake and urged members of the public to disregard it, stating that information regarding the award of the rank of SAN could only emanate from the office of the LPPC Secretary or Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court.

The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to a story by an online medium which is currently in circulation with a purported list of ‘successful candidates’ that emerged after the second filtration exercise by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee.

“We wish to state clearly that the above information is fake, unofficial, and untrue. It is a mere figment of the imagination of the authors who may ostensibly be on a mission to impugn and malign the reputation and integrity of the LPPC with a view to causing confusion and scepticism in the public space.

“The information should be discountenanced by whosoever might have come across it. For the umpteenth time, we wish to let the public know that any information, especially issues regarding the above topic can only emanate from the office of the LPPC Secretary/Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Anything outside this official source should be disregarded.

“As has been the practice, all information concerning the LPPC, especially those bordering on the announcement of successful applicants for the award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, are published in reputable national dailies and this year’s own will not be an exception. The perpetrators of such illegal act would be apprehended and given appropriate sanctions to serve as a deterrent to others that might be waiting in the queue to do same in the future.”

The LPPC Secretariat also appealed to bloggers of various lawyers’ platforms to refrain from circulating unauthorised materials or fake documents.

Akande warned that the LPPC would be forced to refer the conduct of such bloggers who are legal practitioners to the appropriate disciplinary committee of the Body of Benchers.

He also added that the authentic official list of the successful applicants that emerged from the second filtration exercise by the LPPC will be made public through advertorials in the national dailies in due course.