Former second vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Monday Onyekachi Ubani, reportedly collapsed yesterday and was allegedly rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Abuja.

The lawyer and an ex-senator from Bayelsa State, Christopher Enai, have been in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since March 19, 2019 for failing to produce the erstwhile chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, whom both stood for as sureties in a N6.4 billion fraud allegation suit.

A family member, who pleaded for anonymity, said Ubani fainted yesterday morning after “suffering severe dehydration and high blood pressure.”

He pleaded with the EFCC chairman to comply with the court order asking for his brother’s release.

In a statement he issued after his arrest, Ubani had maintained his innocence over the disappearance of Olejeme’s disappearance, stating that he lost contact with her after “EFCC officials raided her home in Abuja.”

Besides, the anti-graft agency said it expected the NBA to rebuke the detainee for flouting one of the time-honoured rules of professional conduct by standing as surety for a client.

Its acting spokesperson, Tony Orilade, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said: “Rule 37(1) of the Rules of Professional Conduct states “where a lawyer undertakes the defence of a person accused of a crime, he shall exert himself, by all fair and honourable means, to put before the court all matters that are necessary in the interest of justice, but shall not stand or offer to stand bail for a person for whom he or a person in his law firm is appearing.”

•Sourced from The Guardian report

Update news