Aiteo Group appoints Olanipekun, Agabi, Ozekhome, others into legal team

In view of recent defamatory publications and insinuations that had negatively impacted its image and operations, indigenous oil firm, Aiteo Group, has appointed some prominent Nigerian layers into its international legal team to complement its representation in legal and political-based issues within the country. Led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the team comprises such other SANs as Kanu Agabi and Akin Olujinmi (both former attorneys-general and justice ministers), Constitutional and Human Rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, Paul Usoro, Rotimi Ogunesi and A U Mustapha. The others lawyers include Ebenezer Obeya, Andrew Oru, Mrs. Boma Alabi, Chidi Nobis-Elendu, Emeka Ozoani and Joseph Nwatu. All of them have made their marks as combative and accomplished litigators in the country and beyond, according to a statement by the Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Aiteo Group, Ndiana Matthew. According to Aiteo Group’s Executive Director and General Counsel, Andrew Onyearu, who announced the appointments, “the Group’s belief in the rule of law and the legal processes in Nigeria requires engagement with both commitment and premium resources. “Recently, our conviction in the infallibility of our judicial processes continues to be vindicated by judicial pronouncements deprecating the unjustified calumnious attacks on our business and personal outlook. “Our respect for this process mandates that those who advocate positions on our behalf possess and demonstrate the type of world-class credentials that our lawyers clearly possess.” He added: “At the fulcrum of this stance is that desire to ensure that the course of justice is charted with the utmost sense of application, responsibility and expertise.” More so, “the Group has been adversely affected by a litany of unsustainable unlawful developments affecting both reputational and commercial integrity in a manner that has negatively impacted its operations,” and “can no longer allow this situation to continue and as such, has resolved to take steps to protect all its legal interests. “Recent positive – and ground breaking – outcomes from judicial interventions that we have achieved serve as clear pointers about the direction that we are now pursuing. Increasing the successful utilisation of the judicial process in areas where we have been wronged will be the main objective of the team we have now put together.” Their scope of the work will span the breadth of contentious legal work, with its early mandates including the review and redress, “by all available means, including court actions,” of defamatory publications (open source materials) in which Aiteo and its Executive Vice Chairman, Benedict Peters, have been previously featured.