AS a young man, Augustine Oyarekhua Alegeh might have read about the renowned civil rights advocate and former First Lady of the United States, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who in one of her writings wrote: 'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams', and he held tenaciously to his dream of being a legal practitioner.Alegeh's belief in the power and beauty of his dream spurred him to work assiduously at a tender age to become one of the nation's finest lawyers of our time, even though, he had a peculiar experience of being a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police's son.His passion for the legal profession was ignited when he saw people that ran foul of the law, throng to their house to seek help from his police father.According to him, 'It was not just a happenstance that I chose to be a lawyer, I had, right from my childhood, in my village in Etsako, Edo State, decided to take the path of the legal practice because of the love I have for the down trodden.'I came to see lawyers as people who rendered assistance to people in need, so I decided to read law as my own little contribution to help people in need', he added.Today, that dream and love for humanity, which Alegeh cherished so much has become a reality, going by the number of lives, he had saved through judicial intervention, majority of them, free of charge or what is known in legal parlance as pro bono.One of such cases that easily comes to mind was the case involving Ihekwuba, and the state.In that particular case, Ihekwuba was sentenced to death by the Firearms Tribunal in 1998, but after a thorough review of the case, he was set free on appeal all because of Alegeh's legal dexterity.In that case, Austin, as he is fondly called by admirers, argued at the appellate court, that Ihekwuba was not only wrongly convicted but that he had spent many years in prison custody.He said: 'After a careful review of the case, I discovered that the man was convicted wrongly, so not only did we in that case overturned his conviction, we also successfully stopped the retrial.'Because, we conceded to the fact that our arguments of which the court agreed with us were technical, not on merit.'The man was being tried by the Firearms Tribunal but with the advent of democracy in 1999, the Tribunal transformed to a High Court, but the man was still convicted under the toga of a tribunal, without taking a fresh plea as the law demand,' he added.Alegeh exhibited a lot of candour in his argument by firmly holding the view that since there was a change in status and nomenclature, the trial must start de novo (afresh) with a fresh plea, a position the court agreed with in that trial.Normally in such cases, there should have been a retrial, but Alegeh had through a robust advocacy skill, canvassed arguments forcefully, that given the time, the man had spent in prison and the peculiarity of the case, which requires identification evidence, the memories of those who are involved could have been difficult for the court to rely on then, an argument, the court upheld and set the man free.Alegeh, who does not determine the importance of a case by how much the clients pays but by how much he is able to contribute to the advancement of the nation's jurisprudence as well as fulfilling his dreams of helping the indigents in the society, relives his experience thus: 'When you see such clients, who you are representing not because of the money but because of your avowed interest to help them through pro bono case and you free them from the throes of death.'The satisfaction it gives you is not such you get from any big paying case. I have been fortunate to do a few criminal matters that remove people from death and it gives me a lot of satisfaction,' he added.Apart from Alegeh's many successes in the legal profession as evidenced by the highbrow cases, his immense contribution to the Bar is also legendary.Alegeh's soft mien and intellectual ability have endowed him to the heart of his colleagues at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and for his loyalty and commitment to the Association, he was made the Chairman, Lawyers Database Committee and a member of the National Executive Council.As a member of the International Bar Association and International Associate of the American Bar Association, Alegeh has also caved a niche for himself in mediation.Because of his mediating role and respect for decorum which started at his young age, and was even nicknamed, 'mediator' by members of his family, Alegeh has been called upon severally to intervene, whenever necessary.An advocate of the court to the core, he has handled several cases spanning in many areas of law and because of his immense contributions to the legal practice in Nigeria, he was elevated to the rank of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2007.A particular case, which Alegeh handled, that has become Locus Classicus in labour laws in Nigeria was the case involving Omagbemi vs Guinness Nigeria Plc.Born in August 10, 1964, to the Alegehs of Etsako-West Local Council of Edo State, young Augustine attended St. George's Primary School, Falomo, Lagos for his First School Leaving Certificate, between 1969-1974.Between 1975-1980, he attended Edo College, Benin city for his West African School Certificate - Grade One and between January and September 1981, Alegeh attended Federal Government College, Warri.After his secondary education, young Alegeh, who is the fourth in a family of eight, gained admission into the University of Benin to study law, as one of the pioneer law students in1981.In 1985, he bagged his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) with a Second-Class Upper Division, one of the few that made 2-1 that year.Between 1985 -1986, Alegeh attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos and bagged Barrister at Law (B.L.) Second Class Upper Division, he also won the Bola Ajibola prize for Civil Procedure at Bar qualifying examinations, and was called to the Bar in October 1986.Alegeh's professional career started with Sadoh & Co. Legal practitioners, Benin City, where he stayed from 1986 to1989.He made a very big break in the profession, when his principal, Justice James Sadoh, who was called to the Bar in 1964, took appointment with the Bench in 1989; and he took charge of the chambers as the most senior lawyer in the chamber at that time.Alegeh started doing cases that his principal left even as a young lawyer, crossing the paths of many senior lawyers including Senior Advocates of Nigeria.He said of this experience: 'The challenge was that if you didn't know what you were doing, you would lose your cases. So I had to do a lot of reading and research, even after addressing the court, I would sit down at court and see how other people argued their cases, so as to learn from them.' I had a notebook, whenever I got to court, I would open my note book, whenever any lawyer made a point that I didn't know, I would record it. The note I took, then, even in this computer age, is still useful to me.'We still refer to it when we have difficult matters. Any court I go to, I would carry my notebook. If my case has not been called, I would put my notebook on the table while listening as lawyers make their submissions, and any thing that was interesting to me, I would record.'This afforded me the opportunity to study the mannerism of judges, so I came to know what the judges liked and knew what they did not like,' he added.In 1990, after some of his partners in chambers decided to relocate to America, Alegeh established Alegeh, Agun & Co. Legal practitioners with his first partner and junior, who died some years ago in Benin City.Alegeh later moved to Lagos in 1993, when he felt that Benin was limiting his space.After becoming a notary public in 1994, he decided to open an office in Abuja in 1995-96, while the Benin office remained the head office and the biggest.Alegeh, who has navigated through all manner of cases, ranging from land to criminal cases, described criminal cases as very touching in terms of its jurisprudence and humanity.Apart from being in position to provide legal activism in important areas of law, Alegeh is also involved in international arbitration, handling a case at the International Centre For Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID), an arbitration arm of the World Bank based in Washington, D. C.'The centre handles specialised matters. It doesn't come up everyday, whenever it comes up, you consider yourself fortunate to be in that position. Currently, we have a few of the cases pending', he said.His law firm is representing the Federal Government in some high profile cases, which include the Valued Added Tax (VAT) case between the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government, and the Excess Crude case between the Federal Government and the states.On what he will do after retirement from practice, Alegeh said, he will likely return to the classroom as a law teacher in any of the nation's law faculties for free because of his love for legal education.He is the only lawyer in the family and he is also a family man to the core. Alegeh, who loves spending quality time with his family, is happily married with four children, three girls and a four-year old boy. His eldest daughter, Anita is shortly going to read Law in any of the three Law Faculties in Buckham University, Bristol University and School of Oriental Studies, London.A Sports enthusiast, Alegeh was the chairman, Edo State Cricket Association between 1996 and 2000. His hobbies include playing cricket, football, online scrabble and general reading.
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