LAGOS, Nigeria – A Lagos State High Court has convicted and fined John Nwawuto Anoruo for impersonating a lawyer and using a forged Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) seal.
Okay News reports that Justice A.M. Lawal, sitting in Ikeja, delivered the judgment on Tuesday after Anoruo pleaded guilty to charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The 55-year-old, who operated a legal and educational consultancy in Ikorodu, was arrested in April 2026 following investigations into documents he submitted to the anti-graft agency.
According to the EFCC, Anoruo admitted obtaining a counterfeit NBA seal from a business centre in Lagos and acknowledged that although he earned a law degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2018, he never attended the Nigerian Law School and was not called to the Nigerian Bar. Investigators also established that the Supreme Court enrolment number on the forged seal belonged to another legal practitioner.
The Commission told the court that Anoruo earned N7.5 million ($4,840) from the legal brief linked to the case. He said he paid N2.5 million ($1,613) to the person who introduced the brief and N1.5 million ($968) to a qualified lawyer who handled the matter on his behalf. The EFCC also recovered a forged NBA seal, a legal practitioner’s attire and a N300,000 ($194) bank draft paid into its recovery account.
Justice Lawal imposed fines of N120,000 ($77) on the first count and N150,000 ($97) on the second count, bringing the total penalty to N270,000 ($174). The court further ordered that the recovered legal practitioner’s attire and forged NBA seal be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria through the EFCC.
