AMCON Objects To Lawyer Agba Eimunjeze’s SAN Elevation Over Pending 50-Count Criminal Charge | Sahara Reporters

According to AMCON, Eimunjeze concealed the allegations from the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) when he applied for the prestigious rank.

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has formally objected to the elevation of Lagos-based lawyer, Agba Eimunjeze, Esq., to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), citing an ongoing 50-count criminal charge against him bordering on fraud, unlawful conversion of landed property, and false claims of authority.

According to AMCON, Eimunjeze concealed the allegations from the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) when he applied for the prestigious rank.

In June 2026, the LPPC published a shortlist of applicants who had cleared the Advocates’ 1st and 2nd Filtration Stages, Academic Pre-qualification, Independent Appeals Hearing, and Law Office Inspection Exercise, with only the final interview stage remaining.

That release, dated Tuesday, June 23, 2026, and signed by Kabir Eniola Akanbi, Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and Secretary of the LPPC, listed Eimunjeze at No. 57 among the “Advocate Applicants” category.

It explicitly cautioned that “the publication of the names of the shortlisted Applicants is not an indication of a successful application,” and invited public objections, to be submitted with a verifying affidavit by 15th July 2026.

Eimunjeze’s status has since advanced. A subsequent LPPC press release, dated July 23, 2026, confirms that at its 174th Plenary Session, chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun, the committee “has approved the elevation of 68 (sixty-eight) legal practitioners to the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).”

Eimunjeze is listed at No. 50 in the final order of seniority at the Bar, alongside 66 other advocate appointees and one successful academic applicant, Prof. Nnamdi Onyeka Obiaraeri.

Crucially, formal conferment is not yet complete. The release states that all shortlisted conferees “are required to attend and successfully complete the Pre-Swearing-In Induction Programme,” calling this “a mandatory prerequisite for the formal conferment of the rank of SAN,” with the date of that programme “to be communicated in due course.”

The swearing-in ceremony for the 68 successful applicants is scheduled for Monday, October 12, 2026.

The release also invokes Paragraph 25(1) of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Guidelines and Rule 39(3) of the Rules of Professional Conduct, 2023, directing that “all shortlisted conferees must refrain from publishing and discourage the publication of advertisements, congratulatory messages, or goodwill notices related to their nomination or conferment,” warning that any breach “may attract sanctions for violations of statutory or ethical rules.”

This means that, as things stand, Eimunjeze has been approved for elevation but has not yet been formally sworn in, and AMCON’s objection, filed within the original comment window, remains a live issue between now and the October ceremony.

AMCON’s objection, submitted on July 6, 2026 and addressed to the Secretary of the LPPC, was signed by Mohammed Yusuf, Technical Assistant to the Managing Director/CEO, and Gbenga Alade, AMCON’s Managing Director/CEO.

The letter references the LPPC’s June publication and states the objection is accompanied by a verifying affidavit with exhibits, delivered in the required 20 copies.

Supreme Court records show the objection letter was received and stamped by the Office of the Chief Registrar on July 8, 2026, more than two weeks before the LPPC’s July 23, approval was announced.

The verifying affidavit was deposed to by Muftau Tolani Musa, who describes himself as an external solicitor and witness to the criminal charge preferred by AMCON against Eimunjeze.

According to the affidavit, filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division: Musa states that Eimunjeze “has an ongoing trial before the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division where he is the defendant in a criminal charge preferred against him by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria as a nominal complainant,” in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/79/2024 – Federal Republic of Nigeria vs. Agba Eimunjeze.

The affidavit further states that the amended charge sheet against Eimunjeze is dated March 11, 2025, and that an application challenging the Federal High Court, Abuja’s jurisdiction to prosecute him, filed on his behalf, is dated January 20, 2025.

Musa deposes that these proceedings “predated the dates of his application for conferment of the rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, which information we believed he concealed from the Privileges Committee.”

The affidavit adds that proceedings in the charge remain active, having come up on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, and were adjourned to May 19, 2026 for arraignment.

It also notes that Eimunjeze is the fourth of four defendants named in AMCON’s instructions to prosecuting counsel in the matter.

In the affidavit’s central paragraph, Musa states on AMCON’s behalf: “That we as responsible Federal Government Institution cannot sit by idle and assist the applicant in the fraudulent concealment of very serious indictment against him in his application for the conferment of the rank of prestigious Senior Advocate of Nigeria on him when he is facing an ongoing criminal charge that has serious implications on his integrity and probity.”

Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/79/2024, filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division, lists the Federal Republic of Nigeria as complainant and Agba Eimunjeze as sole defendant, in a 50-count amended charge.

The counts allege that, sometime between 2011 and 2016, Eimunjeze conspired with three others, listed as Olamidayo Olukoga, Olawunmi Olajide-Awosedo, and Ayoyinka Olajide-Awosedo, to unlawfully sell and convert proceeds from the sale of multiple parcels of land at Victory Park Estate, Igbokushu, Lekki, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, property the charge states belongs to AMCON.

The land parcels named in the charge range from roughly 250 to over 7,200 square metres, with sale sums ranging from N250,000 to N100,000,000 per parcel.

The charge alleges that for each transaction, Eimunjeze executed a deed of assignment while purporting to act as Company Secretary of Knight Rook Ltd, a company the charge states he had “no capacity or authority” to represent.

Also according to the charge, the properties formed part of collateral securing a loan owed by Knight Rook Limited, with the alleged scheme aimed at “defeating the realization of the debt owed to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

The various counts cite alleged breaches of Sections 54(1)(d), 54(5), 54(1)(a), and 54(2) of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act, 2010 (as Amended), covering unlawful conversion, obstruction of AMCON’s recovery mandate, false claims relating to immovable property, and wilful false claims regarding secured debt, respectively.

The amended charge was signed by Adeleke Agbola, SAN, Babajide Olasite, Adebayo Adetomiwa, and Daphne Edughele, counsel to AMCON, and dated March 11, 2025.

A related AMCON letter of instruction, dated December 5, 2025, confirms Matrix-Solicitors LLP’s appointment to prosecute the matter on AMCON’s behalf under Section 55(2) of the AMCON Act, naming all four co-defendants: Olawunmi Olajide-Awosedo, Olamidayo Olukoga, Ayoyinka Olajide-Awosedo, and Agba Eimunjeze.

Court filings show Eimunjeze’s lawyers, BA Law LLP, led by Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, SAN, alongside Wale Adesokan, SAN, Seni Adio, SAN, Paul Harris Ogbole, SAN, and Shaibu Aruwa, SAN, among others, filed a Motion on Notice dated January 20, 2025, seeking to strike out the charge for lack of territorial jurisdiction.

The defence’s written address argues that the alleged offences, properties, and contracts in question are all situated or executed in Lagos State, and that the deeds of assignment relied upon by AMCON were registered at the Lagos State Lands Registry, Alausa.

Citing Section 45(a) of the Federal High Court Act 2004 and precedents including James Onanefe Ibori v. Federal Republic of Nigeria and Patil v. FRN, the defence submits: “Courts are usually not seized of matters that occur outside their territory. In effect, where the ingredients of an offence occur outside the territorial jurisdiction of the court asked to adjudicate over the matter, the court will not assume jurisdiction over same for an apparent lack of jurisdiction.”

The motion further alleges that AMCON’s prosecution amounts to “forum shopping,” pointing to an earlier related charge, Charge No. LD/7300C/2018, filed at the High Court of Lagos State against “the Clients the Defendant represented,” which the defence says was heard and dismissed, before what it characterises as similar offences were subsequently filed against Eimunjeze in Abuja.

The defence asks the court, in the alternative, to refer the matter to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for transfer to the Lagos Judicial Division, or to dispense with Eimunjeze’s physical appearance pending determination of the jurisdictional objection.

A parallel motion and supporting affidavit, deposed to by Temitope Bodunde, a litigation assistant at BA Law LLP, in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/82/2024, raises materially identical jurisdictional arguments on behalf of co-defendant Ayoyinka Olajide-Awosedo, indicating the jurisdictional challenge is being pursued collectively by the defendants named in the AMCON matter.