Legitimacy row: IGP writes to recognise Aliyu, Jaja leadership of Nigerian Law Society

Amid ongoing row over the legitimate version of the Nigerian Law Society, NLS, the Office of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, has written to recognize Ambassador Dahiru Aliyu and Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, as the President and Executive Director, respectively, of the organisation.

Currently, there are two versions of the Nigerian Law Society in the country – one led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief JK Gadzama, and the other led by Aliyu and Jaja.

However, the Office of the IGP, in a letter dated 10th March 2026, with reference number: CB:5180/IGP.SEC/ABJ/VOL.43/41, signed by Commissioner of Police Lateef Adio Ahmed, Principal Staff Officer to the IGP, acknowledged Aliyu and Jaja as the executives of the NLS.

The letter from the Office of the IGP was a response to an earlier letter signed by Aliyu and Jaja, and addressed to the IGP.

The said letter from the Office of the IGP is addressed to the President of the NLS, with office address at No. 4 Sefadu Close off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nigeria.

Reacting to the development while commenting on the legitimacy row surrounding the NLS, on Friday, Jaja noted that the “address is the office address and National Headquarters of the legitimate and registered Nigerian Law Society (NLS) which received its certificate of registration dated 30th December 2025 from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)”.

Jaja, while making clarifications on the dispute over the origins of the NLS, refuted reports that Gadzama is the founder of the organisation and is being impersonated by a parallel leadership.

He noted that the NLS led by Aliyu and himself is not part of an ongoing lawsuit between the Gadzama-led NLS and the CAC and NBA.

“The truth is that JK Gadzama and his associates are currently engaged in a lawsuit at the Court of Appeal Abuja Division against the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

“JK Gadzama and his associates have not yet received any certificate of incorporation, therefore how can they claim that anyone is impersonating an organisation for which they had at no time in recent times received certificate of incorporation?

“The reason for the ongoing lawsuit at the Court of Appeal is that JK Gadzama and his associates are seeking an Order of the Court of Appeal to compel the CAC to register them as an Association of lawyers and alternative to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

“Both the NBA and the CAC are opposed to registration of any parallel Bar Association for lawyers in Nigeria. Their reasoning is that the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962 recognises only the NBA.

“We, the registered organisation registered by the CAC and SMEDAN as the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) are 100% in agreement with the logic and reasoning of both the NBA and the CAC,” Jaja clarified.

Explaining further, he said, “We, as the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) are an association of non-litigation Nigerian lawyers unlike the lawyers under the NBA who are legal practitioners as recognised under the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962.

“The distinction is that the lawyers who are members of the NBA having passed the Bar examinations are qualified as litigation lawyers permitted to be called to the Bar with the right to make appearances in all courts of law within Nigeria in accordance with the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962.

“In contrast, the members of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) are lawyers who have completed the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and some of them have not received additional qualification by attendance at the Nigerian Law School and called to Bar in accordance with the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962.”

According to him, the lawyers who are members of the NLS are LLB degree graduates, and even those who have been called to the Bar, who have made the conscious decision to specialise in fields of law that do not require courtroom litigation.

He listed non-litigation areas of law which members of the NLS are engaged in to include legislative drafting, law lecturing and legal research, arbitration, mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, practice, company secretarial services and law revision and reforms, among others.

Legitimacy row: IGP writes to recognise Aliyu, Jaja leadership of Nigerian Law Society