Babalakin Led COVID-19 NBA Welfare Committee Secures Over N84M Donations For Palliatives To Needy Lawyers— Paul Usoro, SAN

* NBA Welfare Committee To Work With Paul Usoro (SAN) In Identifying Needy Lawyers For The Distribution Of 84.2M Worth Palliatives

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN has in a press release stated the progress being made by the NBA Welfare Committee under the leadership of Dr. Olawale Babalakin, SAN.

In a statement issued by the NBA President, which reads:

COVID-19 PANDEMIC – RELEASE V NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION (“NBA”) WELFARE COMMITTEE

1. It is now almost 45 days since I constituted the NBA Welfare Committee, vide my Release of 16 April 2020, with the mandate, inter alia, “to focus its immediate attention and activities on raising funds from our members and other public-spirited persons and institutions which would be utilized in providing succor to our most vulnerable and deprived members who are worsted by the economic hardships occasioned by the on-going national lockdown consequent upon the dreaded COVID19 pandemic”.

2. I am thrilled to inform our members that the Committee, ably led by Dr. Olawale Babalakin, SAN, working with the other distinguished members, has lived exceedingly up to its billing in the execution of its mandate. Even more exciting and humbling is the fact that our colleagues have responded to the Committee’s clarion call in a landmark manner, perhaps, never seen in the history of NBA.

As at Friday, 29 May 2020, the NBA COVID-19 Relief Fund Account had a credit balance of N84,223,000.00 donated almost entirely by our distinguished colleagues. Just to mention but a few, the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Babalakin, through his Company, Bi-Courtney Limited, donated N10m; he also procured another organization to donate N10m; Lateef Fagbemi, SAN has donated N5m while our past President and leading light, Chief Wole Olanipekun, OFR SAN donated N2.5m.

3. Yusuf Ali, SAN, Ukiri & Lijadu, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, OON, SAN and S. I. Muhammed & Co all donated N2m each while Babalakin & Co donated N2,002,000.00 (independent of the donations by Dr. Babalakin specified in the preceding paragraph) and our indomitable Mia Essien, SAN donated N1m, with another N1m donated by her and her colleagues in Principles Law Partnership, in addition to her working tirelessly with other Committee members to raise the funds . . . and the list goes on and on.

However, just before leaving this point, I must specially thank our Honorable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN who donated N1m and of course, our SolicitorGeneral of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Dayo Apata, SAN who also contributed handsomely. Special mention must also be made of our respected Past President and Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Mr. O C J Okocha, MFR, SAN who was one of the first donors to the Fund. We thank you, Sir, for always leading by example. There are a few of our colleagues who donated generously but insist on remaining anonymous. I of course know them and will reach out to them to express the sincere appreciation of our members.

4. I am truly overwhelmed by these outpouring of love and generosity by our colleagues and can only pray that the Almighty reward them all abundantly and replace in multiple folds the storehouse from which they donated. I must salute the Welfare Committee very specially for their focus and hard work. They have been tireless in knocking on our colleagues’ doors and getting donations for the Fund. It is a tribute to their commitment and industry that we have raised as much funds as we have. Literally all the members of the Committee have also donated to the Fund apart from mobilizing donations from our other colleagues. God bless and reward all of you bounteously. The full list of all the donors will of course be published upon the conclusion of this chapter of the Committee’s assignment and the donors will be captured in an NBA Roll of Honor.

5. By the way, the Committee has not drawn the line on donations; we still expect more donations from you, our dear colleagues who are yet to make your contributions or wish to add to your current donations. Please, send your donation to the following account:
Account Name: NBA COVID-19 Relief Fund Account No.
Account Number: 1387741801
Bank: Access Bank Plc.

6. The Welfare Committee was saddled with a second significant assignment upon its constitution, to wit, “work with me in designing the most equitable and integrity-proof model for identifying the genuinely needy beneficiaries of the relief materials. Part of the Committee’s responsibility would also be to determine the form that the reliefs should take e.g. cash or kind (illustratively, food items and the like) or a combination of the two or any other form”.

That part of the assignment remains outstanding. I have been assured by the Committee that their focus has so far been 3 on “baking the cake”, in a manner of speaking, and that they would shortly proceed to and with that follow-through assignment of distributing the funds to the truly needy members of our Association. I would work with them in that regard and would keep our members fully informed and updated.

Paul Usoro, SAN
NBA President