The National Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA-NEC) at its recently concluded quarterly meeting held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital passed the following resolutions:
- That for the time being, a stop has to be put to physical meetings of the NEC, in favour of virtual meetings. This is a temporary measure in response to the surge in the Omicron variant of Covid-19, as well as the ballooning problem of insecurity in the country;
- That all members of the Nigerian Bar Association who are found to be clearly complicit in the vexed issue of conflicting court orders, would be reported to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for necessary action to serve as a deterrence to others;
- All Members of the Bar that are representatives of the Bar in Agencies and Committees must give periodic reports to the NEC on their respective activities within a period under review;
- The Interim Report of Dr. Monday Ubani, the NBA Special Investigator probing the recent invasion of the residence of the Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili, JSC, is adopted forthwith;
- That in the amendment of the Legal Practitioners Act, the Idigbe Committee’s Version of the Bill, with a few modifications which must include the Independence of the NBA, shall be the working document of the Bar in respect of the amendment process;
- That from January 1, 2022, the payment of the NBA’s Bar Practising Fees (BPF) can only be done online, rather than manually, as obtained previously;
- The Association would set up a legal team led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN. to take the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to court over the attack on the Chairman of the Markudi Branch of the NBA, Gbagi, by men of the Makurdi Zonal Office of the agency;
- A strongly-worded letter would be dispatched to the National Judicial Council to complain about the incessant harassment of lawyers by the Hon Justice Okon Abang, the Judge presiding over the Warri Division of the Federal High Court. This letter would make reference to the case involving a 66-year old lawyer, Andrew Ribido, who was asked to face the wall in open court for “making noise in Court;”
- That henceforth the Association would lend its support only to an open and transparent process for the appointment of Judges in Nigeria;
- The Association has formally adopted the Information Technology Company contracted by the Digital Committee to handle the NBA’s IT Infrastructure, the Statement of Work of the Digital Committee and the Agreement between the NBA and IT Company thereto;
- The NBA NHIS Programme would henceforth be referred to as ‘Akpata Care’ in recognition of the efforts of the NBA President, Olumide Akpata, in pioneering the programme and other NBA Welfare Packages;
- The Association will set up an NBA Fund Committee to be headed by George Utomi to Manage the Association’s Funds, and that the Finance Committee should set up the framework to operate the NBA’s Finance schemes;
- The NBA has resolved to call on President Mohammadu Buhari to sign into law, the Electronic Voting System in the Electoral Act. Should the President fail to do so, the NBA will call on the National Assembly to override his veto (if any);
- NBA has appointed the following distinguished legal personnel as Members of the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ENCBA), as a standing Committee: Ayo Akintunde, SAN as Chairman; Professor Chidi Odinkalu; Mr. Basil Udotai and Aisha Ado-Abdulahi. Mabel Okeke will serve as the Secretary of the committee. NEC has advised respective branches in the country to do the same;
- The NBA would ask the Federal Government to tackle the precarious security situation in Nigeria in Zamfara State, describing the situation in that state as a clear and present danger to the practice of law and the welfare of lawyers in that state;
- The NBA would set up the NBA Security Agencies Relations Committee to be headed by Joe Kyari-Gadzama, SAN;
- The NBA Nec has decided to set up the Governing Council of the Human Rights Institute, headed by Chima Obiago.