TITLE OF THE ARTICLE: The Requirement for Lawyers’ Registration with the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML): A Challenge to the Constitutional Rights to Privacy and Effective Legal Representation
AUTHOR:
Femi Olorunyomi, LL.B, (UNILAG) (BL), LL.M (UNIJOS), Lecturer, Criminal Litigation Department, Nigerian Law School, Kano Campus.
ABSTRACT:
Upon critically reviewing the relevant extant statutory vis-à-vis the constitutional provisions as applicable to money laundering, financing of terrorism and corruption, this article concludes that the modality of fighting the said evils by requiring Designated Non-Financial Institutions and Businesses (into which lawyers are classified), to register with the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (“SCUML”), which by implication compels divulging their clients’ secrets to third parties, is an violation of the fundamental right to privacy, a breach of the lawyer-client privileged communication and an unlawful attempt to regulate the legal profession and the practice of law in Nigeria.