The Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun, OFR, SAN has denied that the letter to Mr. Francesco Caio by a partner in his law firm, did not have his consent.
24th June, 2022
Francesco Caio.
SAIPEM SPA
Via email to: Francesco.caio@saipem.com
Dear Mr. Caio
DISCLAIMER
RE: USD 130MILLION CLAIM IN NIGERIA – RIVERS STATE GOVERNMENT
VS.
SAIPEM SPA, SAIPEM CONTRACTING NIGERIA LIMITED & ORS
Our attention has just been drawn to a letter sent by mail to Mr. Caio of SAIPEM Contracting Nigeria Limited by Adekunbi Ogunde, purportedly acting on behalf of our law firm. The letter was brought to our attention by H. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, OFR, a respected colleague of ours, and a close ally of our Principal, Chief Wole Olanipekun, OFR, SAN. We appreciate the candor of the learned Senior Advocate and his thoughtfulness in bringing the letter to our attention promptly.
First, let it be known without any equivocation that the said letter was written without the instruction, authority, mandate, approval or consent of Wole Olanipekun & Co.; it was also not brought to our attention by the writer. Second, it has never been the practice of our law firm to solicit for cases or clientele, and we shall never indulge ourselves in this disturbing practice and trend.
Third, H. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, OFR is one of the leading lights in our profession, sound in character and knowledge. He is intellectually adept, and we are proud to say that our Principal has very high regards for him. In other words, no client or company can have a better counsel to represent it than this icon of the Bar.
Equally, we have always had, and we still have our high respect for the law firm of Ajumogobia & Okeke. Fourth, the practice in our law firm is that before any letter goes out, it must be cleared in-house, and jointly attested to or signed by two counsel.
In effect, the writer of the letter under reference was on her own, and we do wholly dissociate ourselves from the letter and its contents; while internal measures would immediately be taken to address and redress this very unfortunate situation.
The writer never discussed her intention to write the letter or showed it to any person or counsel in the office, either before or after sending it to Mr. Caio.
Our Principal, without being immodest, has never been known to indulge himself in the type of practice portrayed in the letter under reference.
He is a very sober and humble person, and we believe learned Silk, H. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, OFR can attest to this. He stands for the best in the profession, in terms of ethics, honour, integrity, discipline, character and carriage. Ditto for our office, which has been in existence since 1980.
As at now, our Principal is in the forefront of initiating reforms in the legal profession, in order to restore its age-long discipline, ethics and honour.
Thus, on receipt of the letter under reference, he felt so much disgusted, disappointed and distressed.
To put it mildly, the entire scenario is highly embarrassing to the whole office. Our Principal was in utter shock when his attention was brought to H. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, OFR’s letter by his Secretary. The entire office was also very alarmed and greatly perturbed.
In parenthesis, we dissociate ourselves from the letter under reference, as the writer was on her own. As stated earlier, we will address this shortly. Put in other words, the letter is hereby retracted unequivocally; in spite of the fact that it was unauthorized and done without our permission, authority or consent.
We unreservedly apologize to the highly respected H. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, OF, and the entire law firm of Ajumogobia & Okeke for the embarrassment which the letter might have caused them; but let it be known that the letter has also caused us a lot of embarrassment as well.
Pp: Wole Olanipekun & Co.
James Adesulu,
Associate Counsel
Quam Owolabi Bisiriyu
Associate Counsel
