COVID-19: Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Donates N5M For Distribution To 250 Young Lawyers In NBA Ibadan As Palliative

Renowned legal practitioner, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has donated the sum of five million to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan branch, to be distributed to 250 young lawyers of Ibadan Bar with one to seven years post-call at the rate of N20, 000 each.

The donation from Fagbemi is to assist the young lawyers during the stay-at-home period that the government ordered in order to allow it effectively tame the scourge of the coronavirus.

The Ibadan Bar had captured the names of 240 young lawyers within the one to seven years post-call range to benefit from the goodwill of the senior advocate but he had added extra to cover 10 extra young lawyers.

Fagbemi in a letter to the Bar had stated that the stay-at-home order will pose a challenge for young lawyers and expressed his wish that the bar credits all beneficiaries before the week runs out as he has paid the sum of five million into the NBA welfare fund account domiciled with Access Bank Plc with number 0717526149, to serve as relief package to the Ibadan Young Lawyers Forum.

“Everybody is aware that the government has ordered citizens to stay at home during this trying period of our national life in order to tame the scourge of the nuisance called coronavirus otherwise called COVID-19.

“While one appreciates the efforts of the government to contain this pandemic disease, one cannot shy away from or gloss over the challenge of hardship posed to our junior colleagues as a result of the lockdown.

“It is against this that I decided to give a token of five million naira (N5,000,000) to be shared among 250 young lawyers (1-7 years post-call) of Ibadan Bar, at a flat/share rate of twenty thousand naira (N20, 0000) to each member in this age bracket. This is an increase of about 10 above the 240 captured in the estimate you sent to me,” Fagbemi said in his letter to the Ibadan Bar of the NBA.