President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, has attended her first meeting of the Body of Benchers in her capacity as NBA President, with the meeting taking up the emerging legal questions surrounding appeals from decisions of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee following a recent landmark judgment of the Supreme Court.
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Badejo-Okusanya attended the Body of Benchers meeting on September 17, 2026, marking the beginning of her formal engagement with the statutory body responsible for important aspects of admission to and discipline within the Nigerian legal profession.
A major development at the meeting was her appointment to an Ad Hoc Committee charged with examining issues arising from appeals against decisions of the LPDC, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Ben Mene-Ejegi v. Nigerian Bar Association & Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee.
The issue has assumed considerable importance for the legal profession because the Supreme Court, in its June 26, 2026 judgment in SC/481/2018, held by a 5-2 majority that appeals from the LPDC cannot proceed directly to the Supreme Court under Section 12(7) of the Legal Practitioners Act. The apex court held that the provision was unconstitutional to the extent that it purported to confer a direct right of appeal from the disciplinary committee to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the constitutionally recognised appellate hierarchy requires such matters to proceed through the Court of Appeal before reaching the Supreme Court, thereby departing from its earlier decision in Okike v. LPDC, which had for years been relied upon as authority for direct appeals from the disciplinary body.
It is against that background that the Body of Benchers constituted the new committee to examine the implications of the judgment and issues concerning the future appellate framework for disciplinary proceedings involving legal practitioners.
The committee is chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice K.B. Akaahs, with former NBA President and Life Bencher J.B. Daudu, SAN, NBA President Badejo-Okusanya, and Prof. Dakas C.J. Dakas, Chairman of the Law Reform Commission, serving on the committee.
The official NBA statement did not disclose the committee’s eventual recommendations or indicate that a final position had already been reached. Its mandate at this stage is to examine the issues arising from LPDC appeals in light of the new Supreme Court position.
The question is particularly significant because Section 12(7) of the Legal Practitioners Act had expressly provided for appeals from directions of the LPDC to the Supreme Court. The apex court has now held that ordinary legislation cannot enlarge the appellate jurisdiction conferred on the Supreme Court by the Constitution.
The judgment therefore created a need for institutions within the legal profession to consider how the disciplinary appeal structure should operate consistently with the Constitution and what legislative or other reforms may be required.
The NBA had previously identified the judgment as requiring institutional attention. Immediate Past President Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, had disclosed that the Association approached the Attorney-General of the Federation with a view to engaging the National Assembly on the relevant statutory provision after the Supreme Court invalidated the direct-appeal route.
At Thursday’s Body of Benchers meeting, Badejo-Okusanya was received by a number of senior members of the Bench and Bar.
They included Chairman of the Body of Benchers and Life Bencher HRM Albert Akpomudje, SAN; former Chief Justice of Nigeria and Life Bencher Justice Mahmud Mohammed, GCON; and the first female Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Mrs. Hairat Balogun, OON.
Also present were former Chief Justice of Nigeria and Life Bencher Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, GCON; former Body of Benchers Chairman and former NBA President Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN; and former NBA Presidents and Life Benchers Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN; J.B. Daudu, SAN; and Paul Usoro, SAN.
Others named in the NBA statement were Life Bencher and former NBA President Y.C. Maikyau, SAN, OON, and the Immediate Past NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN.
Badejo-Okusanya expressed her commitment to contributing meaningfully to the work of the Body of Benchers and to matters concerning the advancement of the legal profession and the rule of law.
Her participation comes shortly after assuming leadership of the NBA and places her directly within deliberations over one of the more consequential questions presently facing the profession: where and how lawyers disciplined by the LPDC should exercise their right of appeal following the Supreme Court’s rejection of the long-established direct route to the apex court.
The Body of Benchers’ ad hoc committee is therefore expected to examine the practical and legal implications of the Mene-Ejegi judgment and consider the appropriate way forward for the professional disciplinary appellate system.
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