The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu branch, and two families have raised the alarm over one Dr. Charles, who is allegedly parading himself as a lawyer and extorting money from the public.
In a petition to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), signed by the branch Chairman, Adebayo Akinlade and Assistant Secretary, Oluwaseun Aka, NBA accused Charles of criminal conspiracy, threat to life and impersonation.
He was also accused of intimidation, false information, forgery and obtaining by false pretence.
Conducts which the association said were likely to cause a breach of the peace.
The association said it was unfortunate that the man resorted to illegal means of livelihood, to the detriment of his victims. NBA demanded his arrest and prosecution.
NBA said it was its duty to draw attention to the man because of its desire for a clean society.
“It is imperative to state among the surreptitious means used by Charles in duping people, are not but limited to proclaiming himself as personal assistant to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, by collecting huge sums of money from clients under the guise of filing court processes on their behalf. He also moves about parading himself as a close ally to the former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
“His act of lawlessness cannot be quantified, as they are barbaric and dastardly. It is our belief that the law is no respecter of anybody. Efforts to make him change his fraudulent acts have proved abortive. We have been facing challenges over fake lawyers within our jurisdiction in the last two years.”
The association said it directed its former vice chairman to directly investigate the man because it was disturbed by his activities.
“The former vice chairman is ready to testify against the impostor if he is prosecuted in court. We hereby seek to alert the constituted authorities to investigate these assertions, to bring him to book. We have all evidence to back our allegations against him and we shall not hesitate to provide them when required.
“The policemen from Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos have in their possession incriminating documents retrieved from his office when a search warrant was executed there at Igbogbo, Ikorodu on July 12”, NBA said.
In their own petition, the families of Ajako and Shosanya of Owode Ibeshe in Ikorodu accused Charles of harassing them with the police when they discovered that he is not a lawyer.
The petition, signed by their lawyer Tayo Ladega reads: “Our clients contacted Charles, who presented himself as a lawyer to help reclaim their expanse of land from NICHEMTX Ltd. But when our clients discovered that he was not a lawyer, the job to reclaim the land was revoked.
“To the chagrin of our clients, Charles has resorted to the use of mobile policemen whom he brought to the site of our clients and he also has been using the policemen to terrorise the families of our clients.”