General
West-Idahosa, 71 Others, Now Senior Advocate Of Nigeria
Former federal lawmaker and lawyer, Ehiogie West-Idahosa, has been elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee recently elevated West-Idahosa, together with 71 other lawyers, to the status of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
In Nigeria, the SAN is awarded as a mark of excellence to members of the legal profession who have distinguished themselves as advocates and academics.
The former lawmaker represented Ovia South-West/North-East of Edo State at the House of Representative from 1999 to 2011.
West-Idahosa is the principal partner at West-Idahosa & Co., a law firm he founded in 1991. The firm has its head office in Abuja and with offices in Benin City, Lagos, Sokoto, London and Atlanta in the United States of America.
Commenting on the new status, a UK-based Economist/ Business Intelligence Consultant, Ellis Enobakhare, stated that the SANship award to West-Idahosa is well-deserved.
According to Enobahkare, “Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa, who has been in the legal practice for over 35 years, has worked towards the development of Nigeria in general and the Legal profession in particular.
“He is of a good, impeccable character with integrity and a distinguished legal practitioner in Nigeria. His frontiers extends to politics as a reputable, dependable, responsible patriotic voice of all issues of legislative and national importance.
“He has been spectacular for years now and some of us rightly thought his elevation should have been earlier than now. But now, we believe is God’s time and the right time”, Enobakhare opined.
Other notable lawyers who were similarly elevated to the rank of SAN include the Law editor of Thisday Newspaper, Onikpeko Briathwaite; the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Dr Anthony Ojukwu, and the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Ekiti State, Olawale Fapohunda.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, is expected to swear in the new senior advocates during an inauguration ceremony to be held on December 8 at the Supreme Court premises in Abuja.
Dr. Ehiogie West–Idahosa graduated with an LL.B (Hons) degree from the University of Benin in 1984 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985.
He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration and Management, Certificate in Petroleum Economics from Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited, Certificate in fundamentals of Petroleum Industry Economics from the Centre for Energy Studies, Louisiana State University, Diploma in Public Administration Management for African Countries from the Peiking University, Beijing in China, Diploma in Parliamentary Training Scheme from the Congress of Deputies, Madrid in Spain, Masters in Public Administration (University of Calabar), Masters in Public Administration and Policy Analysis ( PAPA) and PHD (University of Abuja).
Dr. Ehigie West-Idahosa was a member of the House of Representatives of Nigeria from 1999 to 2011. He was Chairman of the House Committees on Petroleum Resources, Interior and also chaired Ad-hoc Committees on Rules Review, National Security and Maritime Security.