TheCable

Make A Difference (MADI), a civil society organisation (CSO), has asked the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) to probe the alleged professional misconduct of George Ogara, deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ogara, a lawyer, had through Ejike Obumneme, his counsel, filed a suit in court seeking to disqualify Peter Mbah, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu, on grounds that he is an ex-convict.

Consequently, Mbah asked the disciplinary committee to weigh in.

In a statement on Sunday, Lemmy Ughegbe, MADI’s executive director, said Ogara and Obumneme should be punished if it is found out that they have breached the ethics of LPDC.

Ughegbe said the claims in the suit were not only false but also an attempt to mislead the court.

“We are obligated to call on the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) to expedite action in the investigation into the petition filed against the deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu state, Barrister George Ogara and Barrister Ejike Obumneme, for malicious use of the judiciary to subvert the will of the people and derail democracy,” he said.

“The petition was filed by the governorship candidate of the PDP, Peter Mbah.

“In the said petition, Mbah had accused Ogara of gross violation of the rules of professional conduct for legal practitioners, by supplying false information to mislead the court and malign him.

“In a separate petition, Mbah also accused Obumneme of filing frivolous and malicious processes based on information which he clearly knew or reasonably ought to know to be false.

“After painstakingly studying the petition and all documents related thereof, Make A Difference Initiative is duty bound to call on the LPDC to take urgent steps to stop to investigate the claims of professional misconduct against Ogara and Obumneme in order to safeguard the sanctity of the temple of justice.

“It is therefore in the interest of the sanctity of our electoral process and the legal profession that both Ogara and Obumneme do not go scot-free if indeed they have breached the Rules and ethics of their profession.”