The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned lawyers against charging clients in foreign currencies, describing the practice as illegal and unethical.<\/p>\n
The warning was issued on Friday, September 11, 2026, by the Acting Zonal Director of the EFCC Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, Ikoyi, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Bawa Usman Kaltungo, during a meeting with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos Task Force on Illegal Practice of Law.<\/p>\n
Kaltungo, who received the delegation led by the task force\u2019s Head, Moshood Abiola, said the commission was currently handling two cases involving lawyers who allegedly charged clients in US dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have two cases of lawyers who were found to have charged fees in dollars. This is unethical and illegal, as the Naira is the country\u2019s legal tender,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The EFCC official warned that the commission would prosecute lawyers found culpable of charging clients in foreign currencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe usually don\u2019t want to have issues with members of the NBA. However, some lawyers are pushing us. Any lawyer we find culpable of charging clients in foreign currencies will be prosecuted,\u201d Kaltungo said.<\/p>\n
He also cautioned legal practitioners against invoking the name of the EFCC to impose excessive charges on clients.<\/p>\n
According to him, while lawyers have the right to determine their professional fees, they should not falsely represent such charges as requirements imposed by the anti-graft agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cLawyers should stop name-dropping the EFCC to overcharge their clients. They have the right to charge their clients as much as they like, but they shouldn\u2019t drag the EFCC into it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The EFCC directorate also raised concerns about other forms of alleged professional misconduct among some legal practitioners, including activities that could obstruct investigations or frustrate the administration of justice.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Abiola commended the EFCC for its recent prosecution and conviction of a fake lawyer, describing the process as \u201cswift and reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the NBA task force had identified several cases involving lawyers allegedly engaged in malpractice and was seeking stronger collaboration with the EFCC to ensure that practitioners involved in criminal conduct were prosecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have several cases like that, and we would like to strengthen our collaboration with the EFCC so that these individuals can be prosecuted and made to face the law,\u201d Abiola said.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, ACE I Orhieoghene Adewunmi of the Department of Legal and Prosecution, Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, urged the NBA to ensure that appropriate publicity was given to lawyers found culpable of unethical practices.<\/p>\n
She said publicising sanctions against practitioners found guilty of professional misconduct would help members of the public identify them and avoid engaging their services.<\/p>\n
Similarly, ACE II Henry Anasoh of the Department of Legal and Prosecution expressed concern over allegations that some lawyers assist suspects in obstructing investigations, including by allegedly facilitating the production of forged documents for bail applications.<\/p>\n
Anasoh cited instances in which purported medical records were presented in support of bail applications and also raised concerns over legal actions seeking to restrain the EFCC from investigating or prosecuting suspects.<\/p>\n
He urged the NBA to support the commission\u2019s efforts to rid the legal profession of what he described as \u201cunscrupulous practitioners,\u201d stressing that the alleged misconduct of a few lawyers should not undermine the integrity of the profession.<\/p>\n
The meeting was part of efforts by the EFCC and the NBA task force to strengthen cooperation in tackling illegal and unethical practices within the legal profession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has warned lawyers against charging clients in foreign currencies, describing the practice as illegal and unethical. The warning was issued on Friday, September 11, 2026, by the Acting Zonal Director of the EFCC Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, Ikoyi, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Bawa Usman Kaltungo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2665,164,4089,8694,30],"class_list":["post-100239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-dollars","tag-efcc","tag-lawyers","tag-name-dropping","tag-nba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100240,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100239\/revisions\/100240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}