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Northern Lawyers Pledge Support For NBA President, Reject Breakaway Faction
By Emmanuel Awosika
Heads of various lawyer associations in Northern Nigeria have pledged their unflinching support for the new President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata.
It was gathered that the leaders had met with the NBA President and other key officials to discuss the decision of some Northern members of the NBA to form a breakaway faction called the ‘New NBA’.
At the meeting, the lawyers, comprising leaders of 40 branches of the NBA in the North, had rejected the breakaway faction.
Acting Chairman, Arewa Lawyers’ Forum, an interest group comprising lawyers from Northern Nigeria, Mr. Elisha Kaura, further asked members of the NBA nationwide to support the newly inaugurated problem.
He said, “We the undersigned individuals, who are Chairmen of the various branches of the Nigerian Bar Association that make up the Northern Geopolitical Zone as defined in the NBA Constitution 2015, and other senior members of the Bar have today Wednesday, September, 2, 2020 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, met with the NBA President, Mr Olumide Akpata, and the National Officers of the NBA.
“We have unanimously agreed to support his leadership of the NBA, and we hereby restate our true allegiance to the NBA and disassociate ourselves from the “New NBA” or any splitter group whatsoever making the waves in recent weeks as a new association/body of lawyers in Nigeria.
“We understand that the NBA has historically and in recent times been fraught with several challenges but we are indeed assured that the NBA under the leadership of Mr. Olumide Akpata will surmount these challenges and birth an all-inclusive Bar that will work for all Lawyers in Nigeria regardless of any part of the divide one may belong.”
The decision of the NBA to withdraw an invitation extended to the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to speak at the just concluded Annual General Conference had led to division within the body.
In particular, some Northern lawyers had taken offence at the decision, and decided to form a splinter group which they called New NBA.
