Politics
By Anayo Ezugwu
THE Open Bar Initiative has faulted the Egbe Amofin, Pan-Yoruba lawyers Association, for rejecting the recent Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, election. The group said the overwhelming majority of lawyers cutting across tribe and religion voted independently for Olumide Akpata to emerge president.
In a statement signed by Silas Joseph Onu, convener, Open Bar Initiative, noted that the NBA Constitution does not recognise any such group as Egbe Amofin. Onu urged Nigerians to ignore this group as they do not represent the views of the majority of lawyers in Nigeria, who spoke loudly through their ballot.
“I read a press statement credited to a group known and referred to as Egbe Amofin, relating to the just concluded NBA election in which an overwhelming majority of lawyers cutting across tribe and religion, voted independently for Olumide Akpata. Let me begin by emphasising that the NBA Constitution does not recognise any such group as Egbe Amofin. It is an illegal organisation, not known to law or the NBA. NBA is an association made up of individual members and only such individual members, who are financially responsible, are recognised by the NBA to raise such concerns.
“In the new NBA, there is no Igbo Lawyers, Yoruba Lawyers, Hausa Lawyers, Idoma Lawyers, Igala Lawyers, Eastern Bar, Western Bar, and Northern Bar, etc, there is only one NBA for all. In this new NBA, individual lawyers from all over Nigeria are the determinant of our leadership choice, not tribal groups or forums. NBA was not established to create ethnic, tribal, or religious sections within its fold. The old clueless leadership succeeded in splitting the Bar to satisfy their primordial interests. That era is gone.
“Lawyers who are Igbos, Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Ikwerre, Urhobo, Igala and many others, voted for Olumide Akpata to emerge as President of the Bar. Therefore, a selected group that could not even field a unanimous candidate in an election cannot claim or pretend to be speaking for and on behalf of the very wise Yoruba lawyers that I know to be very independent in reasoning when it matters most as they just did in the just concluded election.
“I am an Igbo man and I have never recognised or subscribed to what the Eastern Bar Forum does in respect of deciding my choices when it comes to the election – I will never be subjected to such an arrangement. I call on my good friends and brothers from the southwest, on whose behalf this group claims to be speaking, to individually dissociate themselves from the rebellious action of this group. The Bar is bigger than anyone or a group or cabal. We have taken back our Bar and no vested interest can scuttle that,” he said.
Realnews recalls that the Egbe Amofin had rejected the NBA election that produced Akpata as the president-elect of the association. The group had prior to the election adopted Dele Adesina as its presidential candidate for the election.
Egbe Amofin alleged that the election was conducted in breach of the constitution of the NBA. The reasons advanced by Egbe Amofin include disenfranchisement of a significant number of NBA members, unlawful inflation of the number of voters of some branches, voting by some lawyers in the Diaspora, etc. the group, therefore, calls on Body of Benchers to cancel the election and constitute Caretaker Committee to conduct a fresh election within 6 months.
– Aug. 5, 2020 @ 13:59 GMT |
Tags: Open Bar Initiative faults Egbe Amofin position on NBA election
