Foremost business start-up lawyer and Founder of Edoigiawerie and Company LP, Omoruyi Edoigiawerie, Esq, was yesterday sworn in by the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, on behalf of the Chief Justice of Nigeria as a Notary Public of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Edoigiawerie was among 33 other distinguished lawyers including Senior Advocate of Nigeria designate, Dr Oladoyin Awoyale admitted into the prestigious class of lawyers at a swearing in ceremony held at the High Court in Ikeja.
At the ceremony, Justice Alogba congratulated the new Notaries and urged them to be above board in their dealings and in the discharge of their responsibilities and Notaries Public.
Notaries Public are lawyers appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria as officers of the Apex Court.
In Nigeria, only a legal practitioner who has exhibited professional integrity and Excellence can be appointed as a notary Public.
To be appointed, successful candidates must be nominated by at least ten High Court Judges in the applicant’s area of practice who would attest to the integrity and professional competence of the applicant.
Interestingly, the Oaths Act and the Notary Public Act are to the effect that; once a document is authenticated, and sworn to, then that document carries extra weight which can create legal obligations as well as penal measures.
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This goes to underscore the importance of Notaries in the authentication and legalisation of important documents.
While many countries abroad now require travel documents to be notarised before they are submitted, Nigeria has the lowest volume of notarised documents in the world.
A research carried out on several documents from all over the world shows that most documents from Nigeria are not authenticated or notarised.
Speaking after being sworn in, Edoigiawerie said, “This calls for a serious need for awareness in organisations, and there is a need to revisit their forms as well as other important documents to ensure that they have columns for notarisation so as to give requisite weight and importance to the documents.”
