By a letter dated 10th March 2026, Reference Number: CB:5180/IGP.SEC/ABJ/VOL.43/41, signed by Commissioner of Police Lateef Audio, Ahmed, Principal Staff Officer to the Inspector-General of Police of Nigeria acknowledged Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja SCN as the Executive Director of the Nigerian Law Society-NLS as well as Ambassador Dahiru Aliyu SCN as the President of the Nigerian Law Society-NLS.
The said letter is addressed to the President of the Nigerian Law Society-NLS, No. 4 Sefadu Close off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria.
This address is important because it 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 SMEDAN.
This is different from the organisation promoted by Chief JK Gadzama and his colleagues whose national headquarters is located at the Law Offices of JK Gadzama LLP, Garki, Abuja or 73 Ebitu Ekwo Street, Abuja FCT (depending on the weather)!!!
The official letter from the Office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) was a response to an earlier letter signed by both Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja SCN and Ambassador Dahiru Aliyu SCN in their capacity as Executive Director and President of the Nigerian Law Society-NLS respectively.
“CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR APPOINTMENT AND ADVOCACY FOR LAWFUL POLICING REFORMS”
The said letter was sent to congratulate the current Inspector-General of Police on the occasion of his appointment and swearing-in as the 18th indigenous Inspector-General of Police of Nigeria.
The official letter comes with a stern warning that the said letter should not be circulated on platforms (whether electronic or manual), with threat of prosecution for violation.
This clarification has become necessary because Chief JK Gadzama and his associates have continued to pay online bloggers to peddle the unfounded rumour that he is the founder of the NLS and someone else is impersonating.
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 on-going 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.
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.
The lawyers who are members of the Nigerian Law Society-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.
Some of these non-litigation areas of law wherein members of the Nigerian Law Society-NLS are engaged are as follows:
1. Legislative drafting under the National Assembly Service Commission Act, 2014;
2. Law lecturing and legal research under the National Universities Commission Act and the Council of Legal Education Act, 1962;
3. Arbitration, mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practice under the Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2023;
4. Company Secretarial services under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020;
5. Data privacy experts and data controllers under the Nigerian Data Protection Commission Act, 2023;
6. Law revision and law reform experts under the Nigerian Law Reform Commission Act, 2020; just to mention a few.
The Nigerian Law Society-NLS is in collaboration with another registered organisation namely the Body of Senior Counsel of Nigeria (BOSCON) in the award of Fellowship (Blue Silks rank of Senior Counsel of Nigeria-SCN) as a rank of legal excellence for non-litigation Nigerian lawyers who satisfy the criteria for assessment. This includes a minimum of ten years as holder of an LLB degree in addition to 35 verifiable non-litigation transactions and publications.
This clarification has become necessary to guide both the general public and lawyers.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja SCN,
Executive Director, Nigerian Law Society-NLS.