More than six months after the conduct of the 2023 general elections, some lawyers hired by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to defend the party and its candidates at the various election petition tribunals are lamenting that the party has refused to pay their professional fees.
Some of the lawyers are claiming that the APC national secretariat has been dilly-dallying over the payment of the fees owed to them.
The delay, it was gathered, is not unconnected with the introduction of a new payment scale, said to be directed by the Party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje and the new National Legal Adviser, Prof Abdulkarim Abubakar Kana.
Our reporter gathered that most of the lawyers who were officially briefed by the APC to handle their cases, started from the trial courts, up to the appellate court, with some ending up at the Supreme Court.
Before Ganduje took over as national chairman of APC, lawyers who were briefed by the former national legal adviser were paid as much as N8.5 million in legal fees.
Presently, after handling the Party’s pre and post-election matters, the lawyers have been directed to come and collect the payment of N1 million flat rate, including Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
The lawyers wondered why, after duly engaging them and considering the level of effort they put in the discharge of their professional duties, the Party decided to pay them a paltry sum of N1 million.
On the issue of professional fees, “Counsel is required to forward a bill of professional fee and details of the bank account of the Firm to the office of the National Legal Adviser upon acceptance of the brief for necessary consideration by the Party” the APC stated and assured that, “the approved professional fee for this brief shall be in accordance with the scale of fees as approved by the Party”.
However, the letter of engagement to the lawyers signed by the Director, Legal Services, Sanusi Samaila Esq on behalf of the National Legal Adviser, Prof Abdulkarim Kana, added that “the balance of your approved professional fees shall be paid at the conclusion of the appeal after delivery of final judgment, and the submission of a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the final judgment to the Party before payment can be effected”.
In addition, the letter of engagement had instructed the lawyers and senior advocates that they were required to provide the Party with written updated reports of Court proceedings addressed to the office of the National Legal Adviser via the official mail within 24 hours of the court sitting, as well as prompt and regular reports.
Despite the workload, research, and painstaking efforts put in to effectively handle both pre-election matters as well as election petition cases at the various courts and tribunals, the lawyers are lamenting that the N1 million being offered them by the APC was meagre and not commensurate with the work done.
“The annoying thing is that some lawyers travelled to some States, paid hotel accommodation, and flight tickets, took care of other logistics, and even filed matters with their funds without mobilization, one of the lawyers lamented angrily.
The lawyers hinted that before the resignation of Ahmed El-Marzuq, APC’s National Legal Adviser in August 2023, who is believed to be a close ally of the former National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, “we were being paid as much as N8.5 million per lawyer.
“Since Ganduje came as the National Chairman of APC, they have not paid our fees for pre-election matters.
“The previous APC National Chairman and National Legal Adviser tried very well when it comes to settling legal fees but, what the Party is offering now is not commendable.
“After 6 months of the election, we wrote and reminded them severally, before they even responded with a reply that we should come and take N1 million.
“Worrisome is the fact that they are trying to pay N1 million flat rate for legal representations at all levels of the courts, be it trial, appellate or apex court”, a source at one of the law firms said.
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