A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has convicted and fined a 55-year-old man, John Nwawuto Anoruo, ₦270,000 for impersonating a legal practitioner and using a forged Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) seal.
Justice A.M. Lawal delivered the judgment on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, after Anoruo pleaded guilty to a two-count charge brought against him by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court imposed a fine of ₦120,000 on the first count and ₦150,000 on the second, bringing the total to ₦270,000, payable to the Lagos State Judiciary. It also ordered the forfeiture of the legal practitioner’s attire and the forged NBA seal recovered from him to the Federal Government through the EFCC.
Anoruo, who operates a legal and educational consultancy in Ikorodu, Lagos, was arrested by EFCC operatives on Monday, April 20, 2026, following investigations into allegations that he had falsely presented himself as a qualified lawyer.
The case originated from a petition he submitted to the EFCC on September 22, 2025, on behalf of clients against the management of Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited. Investigators subsequently discovered that the petition and a letter withdrawing it, dated March 5, 2026, bore a forged NBA seal.
During investigations, Anoruo reportedly admitted obtaining the seal from an undisclosed business centre in Lagos. He also claimed to have obtained a law degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2018 through evening classes but acknowledged that he had not attended the Nigerian Law School.
One of the charges accused him of fraudulently using a counterfeit NBA seal bearing Supreme Court enrolment number SCN037400 between 2025 and 2026.
The charge stated: “That you, JOHN NWAWUTO ANORUO, sometime between 2025 and 2026, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently used a counterfeited seal titled ‘Nigerian Bar Association’ with Supreme Court Number SCN037400, with intent that same be acted upon as genuine and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 366(1) and punishable under Section 365(1)(x) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.”
The second count accused Anoruo of falsely representing himself to the EFCC on September 4, 2025, as a legal practitioner authorised to practise in Nigeria and of using an NBA seal bearing another lawyer’s Supreme Court enrolment number. The alleged offence was said to contravene Section 382 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Following his guilty plea, prosecution counsel, Saadatu Mahmud Yabo, called Umar Faruk Ahmad, an EFCC investigating officer, to present the facts of the case.
Ahmad told the court that the commission received a petition on April 15, 2026, from a legal practitioner, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika. The petition, dated April 14, alleged that Anoruo had filed a complaint against the lawyer and his law firm while falsely presenting himself as a legal practitioner.
The investigator testified that checks revealed that the Supreme Court enrolment number on the seal belonged to another lawyer. He added that Anoruo admitted obtaining the counterfeit seal from a Lagos business centre and confirmed that he had not been called to the Nigerian Bar.
Ahmad further disclosed that Anoruo received ₦7.5 million from the legal brief in question and paid ₦1.5 million to a qualified lawyer to handle the matter on his behalf.
The witness also told the court that Anoruo arrived at the EFCC office wearing legal practitioner’s attire when he honoured the commission’s invitation. A subsequent search of his residence reportedly led to the recovery of the forged NBA seal bearing another lawyer’s enrolment number.
The prosecution tendered several exhibits, including the petition by Olumide-Fusika, Anoruo’s extra-judicial statement made under caution, correspondence between the EFCC and the Body of Benchers and Supreme Court of Nigeria, the responses received, the legal attire, the forged NBA seal and evidence of a ₦300,000 bank draft paid into the EFCC’s recovery account.
Ahmad identified the legal attire presented in court as the same outfit Anoruo wore when he visited the commission. Defence counsel, G.E. Demkemefa, did not object to the admissibility of the exhibits, which Justice Lawal admitted and marked as Exhibits 1 to 9.
During his plea for leniency, Anoruo told the court that he had paid ₦2.5 million to the person who introduced the legal brief to him and ₦1.5 million to the lawyer he engaged to handle the matter.
Yabo urged the court to convict and sentence him in line with his guilty plea and requested that the exhibits be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Justice Lawal subsequently held: “In view of the plea of the defendant, the defendant is hereby convicted on the two counts.”
Demkemefa pleaded for mercy, describing Anoruo as a first-time offender who had not wasted the time of the EFCC or the court. He also told the court that the defendant “is the breadwinner of his family, comprising his wife and five children,” and urged the judge to impose a fine instead of a custodial sentence.
The court ultimately imposed the combined ₦270,000 fine and ordered the forfeiture of the legal attire and forged NBA seal to the Federal Government through the EFCC.
