SANs felicitate with one of their own, Mba Ukweni, on his 50th birthday

It was a gathering of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), other senior lawyers, politicians and quests when Mr. Mba Ekpezu Ukweni (SAN) celebrated his 50th birthday and his son’s 9th anniversary. Ukweni said that God has been very merciful to his family for the past one year.

“I have attended the pick of the profession having been conferred with the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on September 25, 2016” and on December 23, 2016 my community had a ground reception in my honour and I was given a chieftaincy title.

“The Qua community, both within and outside, collectively met and approved my being conveyed with the highest chieftaincy title of Ntufam. So within this period, I also had some political appointments,” the celebrant said.
Speaking with Daily Times shortly after the ceremony, the senior lawyer lamented the approach adopted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over corruption and recovery of public funds.
“From the beginning, most of us, particularly in the inner Bar have always maintained that, we are in support of the fight against corruption but our quarrel was the approach in which the fight was being done.

“You can’t use a wrong approach to achieve a proper result that was our complaint, now that this money has been found to be somewhere; it is our request that the owner of the money be traced or the person who kept it there. There is no how, such quantity of money can be found and government say, with all the apparatus that the owner(s) cannot be able to trace,” he noted.

Ukweni said though the Rivers state government claimed ownership of the money and NIA said they are the owner, there is question, “we all know, I can’t foresee government’s money of that quantity being kept in an office for that length of time without being used for the purpose it was meant for.”
On the setting up of an investigative committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the SAN said: “Government is free to set up a committee at each point it finds out that such a committee is necessary to do certain investigations. But what I say is that we are watching them very closely to ensure that whatever they are doing, it is for the benefit of Nigerians.”