ABUJA – More than six months after the conclusion of legal matters arising from 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 angrily that the party has refused to pay their legal fees.
Some of the lawyers are claiming that the APC national secretariat has been dilly-dallying over the payment of the legal fees owed 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, who is a Life Bencher.
It was authoritatively gathered that since the emergence of Dr. Ganduje, it has been difficult for the party to pay the pre and post-election legal fees to lawyers who represented the party in some of the court matters.
A source who preferred anonymity told our reporter 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 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 efforts they put in the discharge of their professional duties, the party decided to pay them a paltry sum of N1 million.
One of the letters to the lawyers sighted by Daily Independent was titled,
‘Letter of Engagement to Represent the All Progressives Congress in Suit No…..’, showing that the lawyers were formally engaged.
In the engagement letter, the party had stated, “The party is pleased to engage you as its counsel to represent the All Progressives Congress, in the above mentioned appeal at the Supreme Court.
“You are to represent the party in the appeal until conclusion thereof, subject to the terms and conditions of engagement contained herein.”
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.
More so, the APC had 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 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 “avail the party with written updated reports of court proceedings addressed to the office of the National Legal Adviser via the official mail info@apclegalservices.onmicrosoft.com 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 meager and not commensurate with the work done.
“Imagine handling a pre-election matter from the trial court to appeal court and in some cases to the Supreme Court, and after the matter, you are called to come and collect N1 million.
“The annoying thing is that some lawyers travelled to some states, paid hotel accommodation, flight tickets, took care of other logistics, and even filed matters with their personal funds without mobilisation”, one of the lawyers lamented.
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.
“During the time of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and the former National Legal Adviser, Ahmed El-Marzuq, it was N8.5 million to a non SAN, if you do a matter at the trial court.
“The former National Legal Adviser had a scale but with the new Legal Adviser now and Chairman, they don’t want to use it again”, a source close to one of the law firms that handled matters for the APC said.
“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 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.