Alleged N75M Bribe For “Magu Boys”: Damijay Integrated Services Ltd Petitions CJN Against Victor Giwa For Alleged Infamous Conduct

THE Director of Damijay Integrated Services, Mr. Donald Wokoma has petitioned embattled Victor Giwa, Esq., for alleged “infamous conduct unbecoming of a Legal Practitioner”.

This is contained in a letter dated 9th day of September, 2020 and an affidavit supporting same which were made available to TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL).

It was stated that he allegedly breached rule 14 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, 2007 and also, that he allegedly joined some operatives of the EFCC with a view to extorting their company to the tune of 75 million naira.

The letter reads:

9^th September, 2020

The Hon. The Chief Justice of Nigeria,
The Hon. Justice (Dr.) I. T. Muhammed,
Supreme Court of Nigeria,
Three Arms Zone,
F.C.T., Abuja.

My Noble Lord,

PETITITON OF DAMIJAY INTEGRATED SERVICES LIMITED AGAINST VICTOR GIWA, ESQ. BORDERING ON INFAMOUS CONDUCTS UNBECOMING OF A LEGAL PRACTITIONER IN VIOLATION OF MULTIPLE PROVISIONS OF THE RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL BAR COUNCIL, 2007 AND THE COMPELLING NEED FOR INVESTIGATION AND APPROPRIATE SANCTION

INTRODUCTION:

I, DONALD WOKOMA, Adult, Male, Christian, Nigerian Citizen of Adult of 9 Yinka Arogundade Close, Thomas Estate, Ajah, Lagos, do hereby state that:

1. I am a Director in Damijay Integrated Services Ltd (called Damijay for short) by virtue of which I am conversant with the facts and circumstances eventuating in the instant petition.
2. Sometimes in 2018, I made an attempt to perform some banking transactions on Damijay’s accounts but could not succeed.
3. Upon inquiry, I was informed at the Garki, Abuja Branch of the Access Bank that a ‘POST-NO-DEBIT’ (PND) order was slammed on Damijay’s account meaning that I could not transact on the account.
4. My further enquiry yielded the discovery that the said POST-NO-DEBIT (PND) order on Damijay’s account domiciled with Access Bank was at the directive of the EFCC without any valid order of a Court.
5. Arising from the foregoing development, Damijay, through its then Counsel, MR. VICTOR GIWA, promptly instituted an action before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja sitting at Jabi and presided over by the Honourable Justice O.C. AGBAZA in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/2908/2018 wherein judgment was entered [on Friday, 30^th day of November, 2018] in its favour against the EFCC declaring the restrictions on its account unlawful and effectively ordering that all restrictions thereon be lifted peremptorily. A certified true copy of the said judgment entered by the F.C.T. High Court (Per Agbaza, J.) is hereby attached and marked as EXHIBIT A.
6. Worried that the Order of the Honourable Court (referred to in the preceding paragraph) has not been obeyed, I inquired from our erstwhile Counsel, VICTOR GIWA, Esq., to find out the reason for the refusal of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (the Complainant herein) to obey the Court Order delivered Damijay’s favour. VICTOR GIWA informed me that the agents of the EFCC are demanding for a whopping 75 Million Naira (75, 000,000.00) which they later satanically increased to the 40 % of the total sum in the company’s account (aggregating to One Hundred Million Naira).
7. VICTOR GIWA informed me that the agents of the EFCC demanded that I issue three sets of blank cheques to the tune of Twenty-Five (25) Million Naira each and that they would be the ones to fill in the account details of the beneficiaries of the funds and I complied. I wrote out the said three sets of cheques (valued at twenty-five Million Naira each) which Barrister VICTOR GIWA came to collect from me and he told me that the agents of the EFCC have been harassing him for the cheques.
8. The meeting where he came to collect those cheques lasted for 27 minutes and some seconds. In the said meeting, he told me that he has discussed with the now suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who then gave him someone to work with him on the case. He explained that once they receive the cheques from him, either Mr. Ibrahim Magu or the Director of Operations would sign a letter of release that would be addressed to the Bank where the Damijay’s money was being held and that he (Victor) would send me a copy of the letter.
9. While still in my presence, after collecting the cheques, he put a call across to a female (called Aisha, who was later discovered at the hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to be one BARRISTER FATIMA HASSAN). In the said conversation (which Barrister Victor Giwa put on loudspeaker), Barrister Fatima Hassan asked Victor Giwa, Esq. whether he was with the cheques to which Victor answered yes. She told Victor Giwa to come to Utako where they would meet.
10. After Victor Giwa’s phone conversation with Barrister FATIMA HASSAN, Victor Giwa told me that it was Barrister Fatima’s husband who he (Victor) had wanted to call earlier but that his number was switched off and that the reason why he called Barrister Fatima was that her husband told him (Victor) to call his wife anytime he could not reach him. Unfortunately, appearing before the Panel, the same Barrister Fatima lied that she was to collect the 75 Million Naira as legal fees. I have never met Fatima in my entire life. I have never spoken to her. I never had any Attorney-Client relationship with her (and Barrister VICTOR GIWA confirmed this before the Presidential Panel when he was asked if I have ever met or known Barrister Fatima and he answered in the negative).
11. After collecting the cheques, VICTOR GIWA came to tell me that they (EFCC officials) rejected the cheques because they are Diamond Bank cheques and that instead I should rather execute an Irrevocable Standing Payment Order (ISPO) on the letter headed of Damijay. It was in that process that VICTOR GIWA supplied the under-listed bank account details to me for the purpose of depositing the said Seventy-Five Million Naira [by executing an IRREVOCABLE STANDING PAYMENT ORDER in favour of the said accounts] in three tranches of Twenty-Five (25) million as follows:
    1. Name: Cikin Gida Nigeria Limited

A/C NO: 1771773211. Bank: Polaris Bank

1. Name: Amina Kigbu

A/C NO: 2176716071. Bank: Zenith Bank

1. Name: Black & Black Global Concept Limited

A/C NO: 0259011841. Bank: GTB

12. After executing the Irrevocable Standing Payment Order in favour of the accounts as above, VICTOR GIWA came back to me to say that the Agents of the EFCC had rejected the Seventy-Five Million Naira but have now increased their demand to 40% of the total sum in the 2^nd Defendant’s account (aggregating to the sum of One Hundred Million Naira) which I outrightly rejected.
13. It was two (2) days after my refusal to dance to the unlawful and extortionary tune of the agents of the EFCC (who have satanically raised their atrocious demand to One Hundred Million Naira) that they (the EFCC) now instituted the purported ‘amended charge’ to bring in my name in the original charge filed on the 4^th day of January, 2019 so as to possibly overbear/crush my will, overawe me, intimidate me, and/or stampede me into obliging their obscene demand of humungous One Hundred Million Naira.
14. The facts averred in preceding paragraphs 7, 8, 9, and 10 are contained in two (2) separate audio recordings evidence (27 and 4 minutes respectively) The two separate audios (contained in two separate flash drive) are hereby annexed and marked as EXHIBIT B1 & B2
15. This ugly state of affairs as between the EFCC, VICTOR GIWA herein and myself impelled us to engage the services of Barrister JOHNMARY CHUKWUKASI JIDEOBI to urgently direct a petition to the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation (and copy the Presidential Panel investigating the activities of the suspended Acting Chairman of the Complainant herein) calling for a holistic investigation into the ignoble crimes of gargantuan extortion in which the Complainant herein is entangled with respect to the Applicant’s money. An acknowledgment copy of the said petition to the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation is hereby attached as EXHIBIT C.
16. The said petition was referred to the Honourable Justice Ayo-Salami Judicial Commission of Inquiry currently investigating the now suspended Acting Chairman of the EFCC. I also deposed to an affidavit in support of the petition (containing as exhibits the WhatsApp/sms messages between myself and Barrister Victor Giwa detailing these facts) which was filed and received in evidence before the Honourable Justice Ayo-Salami Judicial Commission of Inquiry which is hereby attached as EXHIBIT D.
17. Following the summons issued against him by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, VICTOR GIWA, Esq. appeared on the 18^th day of August, 2020 before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and admitted whole and entire that he was the one recorded in the two (2) audio recordings which the said Judicial Commission of Inquiry admitted in evidence after it was played in the presence VICTOR GIWA, Esq., Mr. Ibrahim Magu, his Counsel, myself and my Counsel, Johnmary Chukwukasi Jideobi, Esq.
18. VICTOR GIWA testified before the Commission to the effect that he was/is facilitating the Seventy-Five Million Naira extortion deal with one Barrister Fatima Hassan who claimed she was/is connected with high-ranking officials of the EFCC herein who would ensure compliance with the Order of this Honourable Court (Per O.C. Agbaza, J.) in Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/2908/2018 once the Seventy-Five Million Naira was received. As at the 25^th day of August, 2020 when a formal inquiry was made at the Registry of the Court, the EFCC has not filed any Notice of Appeal against the said Order/Judgment of the Hon. Justice O.C. Agbaza. Neither was any stay of execution entered respecting the said judgment by the Commission.
19. After the revelations that emanated from the hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the sordid saga, we initiated a petition to the Director-General, State Security Service otherwise called DSS. An acknowledgment copy of the said petition to D-G, SSS dated and received on the 27^th day of August, 2020 is hereby attached as EXHIBITS E.
20. Despite repeated demand on VICTOR GIWA to provide me with the information relating to my case (while he was working for me) as he gathered from the EFCC people, he outrightly denied me those information preferring to instead protect the interest of the EFCC people to my own interest who hired him against the EFCC. I know that this gravely offends the Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers in Nigeria which by its Rule 14 mandates Lawyers to not only be devoted and dedicated to the cause of his client but to also and more importantly act in manner consistent with the best interest of the client (and not the best interest of the Client’s opponent).
21. I strongly believe that BARRISTER VICTOR GIWA most callously betrayed instead of protecting my best interest in actively working together the EFCC people to extort me of the whooping sum of 75 Million Naira (which they later increased to One Hundred Million Naira) as a condition to enforce a subsisting sacred Order of the Court. I believe that this is treating the Nigerian Constitution with disdain since all authorities and persons are supposed to obey all Court Orders. In failing to act consistently with the demands of the Nigerian Constitution regarding obedience to Orders of Court, VICTOR GIWA has gravely violated Rule 1 of the RPC that exhorts all Lawyers to uphold the Rule of Law and not engage in conducts unbecoming of a Legal Practitioner.
22. I know that the Rules of Professional Conduct, every Lawyer owes his Client the duty of responding as promptly as reasonably possible to request for information by the Client. I strongly feel that Barrister VICTOR GIWA failed me in toto in this regard.

PRAYERS OF THE PETITION:

I have been informed that the job of a Lawyer does not extend to facilitation of extortion. The ethics of legal profession in Nigeria, as I was made to understand, does not exhort extortion as a mode of enforcement of the judgment of a Court of Law which is sacred and should command unquestionable obedience from all authorities and persons. I feel emotionally wrecked, totally traumatized, dumbfounded and dejected that a Lawyer (whom the society holds in high esteem and who) I trusted with my life (and rightly so) could summon the temerity to lead me to the slaughter slab of the adversary instead of protecting me from those who have no regard for our laws (which was the foundational goal for engaging his legal services in the first instance). In my readings and research, I became aware that a Lawyer should be bold, fearless and totally loyal in defending the interest of his client. This is captured in the venerated and beautiful prose of Lord Brougham of England in 1821 in defence of Queen Caroline where he made this extremely apt observation that has a defining impact on the complaints I have now brought before you thus:

“An advocate, in the discharge of his duty, know but one person in all the world, and that person is his client. To save that client by all means and expedients, and at all hazards and costs to other persons, and amongst them, to himself, is his first and only duty; and in performing this duty, he must not regard the alarm, the torments, the destruction which he may bring upon others. Separating the duty of a patriot from that of an advocate, he must go on reckless of consequences, though it should be his unhappy fate to involve his country in confusion”

It is the prayers of this petition that:

1. The Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria directs an inquiry into why Victor Giwa, in clear breach of Rule 14 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, 2007, refused to oblige me with the documents pertaining to my case which I needed to support my petition to the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation despite my repeated written demands to that effect and despite his professional duty of “responding as promptly as reasonably possible to request for information by the client”
2. The Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria directs an inquiry into why Victor Giwa, despite his professional duty of “devotion and dedication to the cause of his client and to act in manner consistent with the best interest of the client”, decided to join my oppressors to kneel on my neck (facilitating my extortion) despite the favourable Court judgment he was under a duty to enforce against my known adversaries.
3. That Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria, against the backdrop of the odoriferous conducts complained of herein, directs an inquiry into whether a person in the frame and character of Barrister Victor Giwa is still fit and proper to continue with the hallowed practice of law in Nigeria which requires the highest attainable ethical standards. allow his odoriferous conducts, being complained of here, drag the image of the entire legal profession to the mud of ignominy.

Please, kindly accept the assurances of our sincere regards,

DONALD WOKOMA

For: DAMIJAY INTEGRATED SERVICES LIMITED