Abdul Mohammed Rafindadi: Senior Advocate at 15
Senior Advocate of Nigeria designate, Abdul Mohammed Rafindadi, was chosen among the 72 Nigerian lawyers to join the rank of the ‘Learned Silks’ in 2020 at the age of 41, and 15 years post-call.
As inspiring as this would be to upcoming young lawyers, his resilience in the pursuit of excellence and the hard work and dedication he put into his legal career were not things a docile person would withstand.
But it paid off for him in the way leaders in the profession have always assured that it would. Any lawyer who passed through the Nigerian Law School must have been told that patience, perseverance and dedication are the investments he or she needs to cross the Rubicon. “The legal profession will pay off. It doesn’t disappoint”, they would always tell you.
Abdul Mohammed Rafindadi appears to have heeded that time-tested advice, and it surely paid off.
He went to Command Day Secondary School, Ojo, Lagos from 1991 to 1997, Ahmadu Bello University, Kano in 2005; Nigerian Law School in 2006; and Master’s degree from Ahmadu Bello University in 2016.
He was an associate at Aluko & Oyebode from 2007 to 2011 and partner at Madyan Legal Consult from 2011 to date.
All this while, he has been a member of the committee on the management of election petitions set up by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2015; member of the committee on Legislative Advocacy of the Unity Bar from 2013 to 2015; member, Standing Committee on the Review of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Civil Procedure Rules 2018; and was admitted as Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) in 2020.
He was appointed as Notary Public for Nigeria in 2016.
He conducted some notable cases at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in Nigeria.
Among them at the Supreme Court are Zayyad Ibrahim V All Progressive Congress & 2 Ors (2019) Vol 16 NWLR Pt 1699 SC, 469; Zayyad Ibrahim V All Progressive Congress & 2 Ors (2019) Vol 16 NWLR Pt 1699 SC, 444; Usman Saminu (aka Danko) V The State (2019) LPELR-47622 SC; Bello Bara’u Gusau v All Progressives Congress (2019) LPELR-46987 SC; and several others that have not been reported.
At the Court of Appeal, he prosecuted cases like The State V Adamu Sulaiman (2018) LPELR-25636 CA; Salihu Muhammed V The State (Appeal No. CA/J/152/C/18; Muhammad Abubakar V APC (Appeal No. CA/A/168/2019; APC V Zayad Ibrahim (Appeal No. CA/A/178/2019; Hon Ben Nwankwo V Ikenna J. Azubuike (Appeal No. CA/A/14A/2014); Ikenna J. Azubuike V INEC (Appeal No. CA/A/14A/2014); The State V Saeed Ibrahim {Boka} (Appeal No. CA/J/11C/2017; The State v Ayba Tukur (Appeal No. CA/J/150C/2013; Hon Charles Ekpe v Hon Moses Itanjah (Appeal No. CA/A/534/2019); Nwosu Gilbert Chidozie v INEC (Appeal No.CA/OW/EPT/SHA/71/2019); Prince Henry O. Oluoha & Anor v INEC & 2 Others (Appeal No. CA/OW/EPT/SHA/88/2019; Hon Haliru Gambo Dangan & Anor v Comfort Amwe & 2 Ors (Appeal No. CA/K/EPT/SHA/51/2019 and a lot more that were not reported.
Most of the criminal cases he prosecuted at the appellate courts were pro bono. That, certainly, was not accidental, as he had set out to render legal service to the helpless and the vulnerable in the society, an exercise a number of lawyers find very appealing to do.
He also found time to engage in intellectual exercise, as he has a number of journal articles to his credit. In fact, he had indicated that research forms part of his hobby, in addition to travelling and leisurely readings.
Some of such articles includes: ‘An Appraisal of the Security and Human Rights Situation in Northern Nigeria; A Comparative Analysis of the Approach of the Nigerian Courts and ECOWAS Community Court of Justice with Respect to the Concept of Locus Standi in Enforcement of Fundamental Rights; A Critique of the Utility of Judicial Review in Remedying Election Relation Disputes in Nigeria; Tackling the Menace of Corruption in Nigeria as Panacea to National Growth and Development: Law to the Rescue; and An Examination of the Socio-cultural and Legal Challenges to an Effective Tax Administration in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects.
Perhaps his broad views on issues and his analytical capacity influenced the NBA to choose him as a session speaker at its Annual General Conference in 2019.
For the young lawyers who aspire to reach the pinnacle of their career in good time, here is role model.