Northern lawyers reject NBA splinter group

Leaders of lawyers’ groups from the northern part of the country have rejected the new ‘Nigerian Bar Association’ splinter group formed by lawyers of Northern extraction who claimed to be of like minds.

The leaders of the lawyers from the northern part of the country met on Wednesday with the new President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Olumide Akpata, and other national officers over the threat by the lawyers of Northern extraction to secede from the association to form a New NBA.

The ‘new NBA’ had emerged recently after controversies that trailed the action of the NBA which dis-invited the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El’Rufai from its conference based on a petition over the killings, and other crimes in that state.

After the meeting at the national secretariat of the association in Abuja, the move by the splinter group to secede and form a New NBA was rejected by participants from about 40 branches of the association in the northern region.

While officially rejecting the splinter group after the meeting, Mr Elisha Kaura, the acting Chairman of the Arewa Lawyers’ Forum, a socio-ethnic platform of lawyers from the northern region, called on members to support the new NBA President.

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 acting Chairman of the Arewa Lawyers’ Forum also urged all lawyers in the country to support Mr Olumide Akpata and the new national officers to ensure that they deliver on all their core mandates.