Oladele Olubakin filed a N500m suit against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on the ground that the Association gifted his painted portrait of President Buhari without his knowledge and consent. Read here. Four weeks after filing the said suit, Mr. Olubakin confirming the date for the hearing of the suit, revealed that the NBA has rejected all entreaties to settle the matter amicably and has also shun the processes served on them.
Speaking extensively on this issue, Mr. Olubakin expressed his resolve to pursue the matter to a logical conclusion. He further stated that he would not speak publicly on the matter again.
Read Olubakin’s statement:
I have tried to see how this can be resolved amicably and even reached out to very senior members of our noble profession to see if anything could be done but the other side has maintained that they owe me no obligation for gifting out my property to the President without my knowledge or consent. On the contrary and ofcourse expectedly, I have been notified of possible threats and persecutions against my practice as a lawyer in Nigeria for crying out to the public and I am not taking this lightly at all.
We have proceeded to court to sue for the violation of my intellectual property rights, conversion of my property and to refrain them from any malicious actions against my practice.
The matter is scheduled to hold on the 26th of April 2018 at Court 4 of the Federal High Court, CBD, Abuja.
All parties have been duly served the court processes for over four weeks now and absolutely nothing has been filed in defense or in response.
We have also notified organizations with keen interest on intellectual property rights protection both within and outside the country to ensure a comprehensive monitoring of this suit.
We hope to reach a meaningful conclusion with this.
I believe in the credibility of our judicial system so now that the matter has been filed, I will henceforth make no more comments publicly on this. I will leave this matter solely to the court to do justice.
I deeply appreciate my family, friends and particularly colleagues who have stood strong with me till date.
By the provision of the Federal High Court Rules, 2009, NBA has 30 days within which to file a response to the claim.
According to Mr. Olubakin’s statement above, the case is scheduled to come up on the 26th of April, 2018 at Court 4 of the Federal High Court.
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