3rd November, 2018
Law student of Benue State University (BSU), Ordam Msughter, on Saturday, emerged winner of the 2018 SimmonsCooper Advocacy Development (SCAD) Award for Young Lawyers.
The SCAD competition is a biennial competition organised by SimmonsCooper Partners, a law firm founded by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Babatunde Irukera and Dapo Akinosun.
SCAD competition affords young lawyers platform to express their thoughts and writing skills in advocacy.
The competition, which is the fourth edition, presented dispute scenarios such as Federalism, Anti-inflammatory Trust Law, Administrative Law, Electricity Law, among other legal perspectives.
The 2018 competition had entries from 23 universities across Nigeria, but only 10 of the universities emerged successful for the finals.
The finalists had Aganin Ntieno-Owor from Nigerian Law School, Kano, Mariam Agbontafara from Afe Babalola University Ekiti, and Ikusika Bamidele from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).
Others are: John Ojelabi from Lagos State University, Olalere Adamu from University of Ibadan, Samuel Olajide from University of Illorin and Kolawole Oladeji from Ekiti State University, among others.
The finalists were given 10 minutes each to argue a case scenario on Electricity Distribution in Lagos State.
The mock case scenario was between Ayade Disco as Plaintiff, and joining defendants such as: the National Electrical Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Attorney General of Lagos State, and the Lagos State House of Assembly.
After taking various arguments from the respective students, the panelists read out the scores which showed Msughter as winner, while Ojelabi from LASU was first runner up, and Ikusika from OAU as second runner up.
The winner was given a cash prize of N200,000, a computer tablet, as well as a SimmonsCoopers Partners Internship opportunity.
The first runner up won a cash sum of N150,000 and a SimmonCoopers Partners Internship Opportunity, while the second runner up won the sum of N100,000 and a SimmonCoopers Partners Internship opportunity.
Dignitaries at the event included former Solicitor General of Lagos State, Mr Fola Arthur Worrey, a lecturer of Electricity Law at LASU, Dr Yemi Oketunbi, Group Managing Director at Aiteo group, Dr Ransome Peanut and Hon. Justice Kudirat Abike of Lagos State High Court, among others.