Omubo Victor Frank-Briggs, Past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Port Harcourt Branch has reacted to the news making the rounds that there was an “ugly scuffle” at an event organized to celebrate the emergence of Prince Nyekwere as the new Chairman of the Branch.
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In a statement sighted by TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL), Frank-Briggs said his “attention has been drawn to a publication in some online blogs about an “ugly scuffle” which supposedly took place at an after-party organised by The Integrity Group to celebrate the emergence of Prince Nyekwere as the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Port Harcourt Branch and the other officers.”
He also said he has “received calls from well-meaning members of the Bar from all over the country requesting to confirm the veracity of the report and I wish to state categorically, and for the avoidance of doubt, that nothing can be further from the truth. The report is a poorly orchestrated fabrication by mischievous elements to engineer a crisis for reasons best known to them them but they will not succeed.”
The Past Chairman narrated that as a tradition of Integrity group, they organized the event to celebrate Prince Nyekwere and other officers and that the event too place at a private residence in GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt not Coral Reef Hotel as fabricated.
“The Port Harcourt Branch of the NBA held Branch elections on Wednesday 24 June 2020 after which Prince Nyekwere emerged as Chairman of the Branch and was sworn into office, alongside the other newly elected Branch Executive officers.
“Prince and I are members of The Integrity Group and consistent with our practice in the past 6 years, The Integrity Group organised and sponsored a victory party in honour of Prince Nyekwere and the other officers. Contrary to the fabrication that the event took place at Coral Reef Hotel, Port Harcourt, the celebration took place at a private residence in GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt, in compliance with the State’s COVID-19 directives. Furthermore, some of the guests were hosted in the sitting room while others were seated outside. The event started around 6.30pm in the evening and ended in time to enable the guests return to their homes ahead of the 10pm curfew.”
He explained that Tonye Krukubo, a partner in the firm of Aluko & Oyebode and the Coordinator of the Babatunde Ajibade campaign in Rivers State, was never manhandled by a “private investigator” but was rather challenged by a private legal practitioner for recording Olumide Akpata while he was speaking.
“Around 8pm, Olumide Akpata who was the classmate of Prince Nyekwere at the University of Benin, and who I knew was in Port Harcourt on his personal business, came to the event, at the invitation of Prince and I. In the course of the evening, the Co-Chairman of the The Integrity Group, invited Olumide Akpata, as a guest in our midst, to say a few words of congratulations to Prince Nyekwere. There was no campaigning whatsoever.
“Immediately after Mr Akpata started to speak, Tonye Krukubo, a partner in the firm of Aluko & Oyebode and the Coordinator of the Babatunde Ajibade campaign in Rivers State, started recording him. Another guest at the event, a legal practitioner and not a “private investigator” as mischievously reported accosted him and asked him (i) why he was recording Olumide Akpata without his permission and (ii) what was the motive behind his sudden decision to start recording having not done so for over three hours since the event started.”
He said “Tonye Krukubo apologised and deleted the videos. He however expressed his displeasure in the manner in which the guest spoke to him and the guest apologised. That was the end of the story. Nothing more, nothing less. The only correct thing in the entire reporting was that Olumide Akpata sat calmly throughout the episode and soon after the incident, he politely took his leave.”
TNL recalls that All hell broke loose, yesterday 25th June 2020, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during an after-party organized by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Port Harcourt Branch otherwise known as The Integrity Branch, at the Coral Reef Hotel, GRA, Port Harcourt, for the newly elected Executive Officers of the Branch.
The after-party was reportedly bankrolled by one of the Presidential candidates for the upcoming NBA National elections, Mr. Olumide Akpata, who braved the interstate lockdown regulations and the NBA elections guidelines prohibiting candidates from visiting branches for campaigns, to be in physical attendance at the after-party in Port Harcourt.
According to the eyewitness, who pleads anonymity, matters degenerated into an ugly scuffle when a very senior member of the Bar, who was in attendance at the event, attempted to record Mr. Olumide Akpata while Mr. Akpata was giving his campaign speech from the podium.
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