[Judgment] Court nullifies sections of Money Laundering Act for lawyers

The judgment delivered on Friday, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja declared Sections 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 30 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 unconstitutional, null, and void as they relate to legal practitioners.

The ruling was made in a suit filed by Abu Arome, a private legal practitioner, against the Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Attorney General of the Federation, and Guarantee Trust Bank. Arome sought to bar the defendants from enforcing the provisions of the Money Laundering Act 2022 against legal practitioners.

Justice Egwuatu granted all the reliefs sought by the plaintiff, effectively shielding legal practitioners from the application of the contentious sections of the Money Laundering Act. The court also held that the restrictions placed on the bank accounts operated by Arome’s law firm, based on a circular issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, were unconstitutional, null, and void.

In his originating summons, Arome had sought the court’s interpretation of previous judgments by the Court of Appeal in similar cases. He argued that the aforementioned sections of the Money Laundering Act 2022, which purported to apply to legal practitioners, were in conflict with the Legal Practitioners Act, the Evidence Act, and the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, which safeguarded the confidentiality of lawyer-client relationships.

Furthermore, the plaintiff challenged the inclusion of legal practitioners and notaries in the definition of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions under the Money Laundering Act, asserting that this inclusion undermined the fundamental doctrine of legal professional privilege and client confidentiality.

 

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