NBA Ikeja Branch Chairmanship Aspirants Petition NBA President, Ask Him To Stop Caretaker Committee From Conducting Proposed Tuesday’s Election

THE controversies trailing the actions of the Caretaker Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch seem unabated, as the scheduled date for the election draws nearer amidst several issues.

However, recall that the NBA Ikeja Branch Caretaker Committee issued its “Electoral Procedure & Guidelines” which was made available to TheNigeriaLawyer, comprising several issues.

In the Guidelines, the Committee noted that its activities will come to end with no intention of renewing its mandate, on the 30th day of September, 2020 while election will hold on Tuesday, 29th day of September, 2020.

Also, it stated that there shall be no election into the office of the Chairman “in view of the fact that one of the chairmanship candidates has approached the court for the interpretation of Article 6(3) of the Uniform Bye-Laws 2015 and the Committee has been served with the court processes.”

TheNigeriaLawyer recalls that there is a pending suit before the Lagos State High Court where three Chairmanship contestants, Daniel Okoye, Esq, Amanda Asagba, Esq and Akeem Aponmade Esq are urging the Court to restrain the conduct of the election vide a Motion Ex Parte dated the 25th day of September, 2020.

In addition to this, in an undated letter written by Ademola Ijaoba, Esq., on behalf of the three aspirants to the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mr. Bisi Ade-Ademuwagun, they intimated him that there is a subsisting suit before the Court, saying that “as law-abiding legal practitioners (they) will not take any further step regarding the proposed branch election so as not to foist a fait accompli on the court”.

Besides, in another letter written to the Caretaker Committee Chairman, by Oluwaseyi Olawumi through his Lawyer, where he referenced “SUIT NO: REF:541042020”, noting that the “suit is seeking the interpretation of Article 6(3) of the Uniform Bye-laws, third schedule to the Nigerian Bar Association Constitution 2015(As Amended)”, and therefore, said all parties are meant to “stay clear of any action”.

In another development, in two separate letters dated 23rd day of September, 2020 written by the three Chairmanship aspirants, which they wrote to the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata and NBA General Secretary, Mrs.  Joyce Oduah, they urged them to prevail on the Caretaker Committee.

“They contend that the Caretaker Committee is bereft of the legal competence to proceed with the proposed election by virtue of the resignation of Mr. Monday Ubani who was initially part of the three-man committee.

“We are of the firm opinion that the Caretaker Committee has lost every moral and legal authority to conduct any election in NBA Ikeja on the eve of the expiration of the Committee’s mandate which by virtue of Article 11(1)(a) of the NBA Constitution, lapsed with the resignation of Mr. Monday O. Ubani, a past Chairman and former 2nd Vice President.

Sir, we seek your urgent intervention by calling the two members of the Committee (Messrs. Bisi Ademuwagun and Adebamigbe Omole) to order and in order not to further ridicule the image of our noble profession. We are strongly persuaded that the elections to the various offices in the branch should be conducted simultaneously as envisaged by our extant Uniform Bye-law.”

Meanwhile, in a chat with a member of the branch who doesn’t want his name disclosed said the gravamen of the  complaint by the Chairmanship aspirants is that what Seyi did is exactly what they have done. Yet, the Caretaker Committee.

accepted only Seyi’s suit and decided to ‘honour’ his counsel’s letter by not conducting election to the office of Chairman but decided to ignore letters from the other candidates. 

He said “Seyi’s suit has no suit no. Theirs doesn’t either. Seyi served the Committee through a letter. They also did the same too. “This is double standard,” he stated. 

He firmly restated that the Caretaker Committee, the moment Mr. Monday Ubani resigned,  “has lost its competence to act, it is true that the committee has a power to co-opt other members but when they were three, they co-opted two members, the two members they co-opted were not former chairmen”, noting that had it been a former Chairman had been co-opted when Mr. Ubani left, there would have been three former Chairmen, to make the composition valid.

Meanwhile, while speaking on the suit instituted by Oluwaseyi, he noted that the suit has not been assigned a suit number but a “reference number” and in Law, a suit is not properly said to have been commenced in the absence of a suit number.

He also noted that Oluwaseyi instructed his Lawyer to write a covering letter to the Committee and having received same, they said the election to the office of Chairman would not be conducted.

“The prayers being sought by Oluwaseyi in Court is not as regards the office of the Chairman but that “no election should take place at all”, noting that if his suit wants “to be used as a pretext, then you cannot have a piecemeal election, it must be that you either don’t have any election at all or go ahead and have all the election.”

In addition, he noted that it is wrong for the Committee to have decided to conduct elections into other offices excluding that of the Chairman, stating that when would that of the Chairman be conducted “and when does the tenure start”.