NBA-SPIDEL In Aggressive Membership Drive, Appoints Messrs Falana SAN And Dr Sam Amadi To Drive The Two Groups Under It

The current chairman of NBA-SPIDEL, Dr Monday Ubani has during his maiden presentation of Spidel report to the recently concluded  NEC meeting held in Abuja,  informed the distinguished body of the intention of the Section to engage in aggressive membership drive across the entire branches of the Federation. Towards this end, they have laid out a plan to appoint Coordinators and Secretaries in all the branches of the NBA.

The Cordinators and Secretaries will recruit and at the same maintain existing membership of the Section in their various branches. Their second task is to help Spidel realise its objectives at the grassroot level in the pursuit of citizens’ rights generally.

To quote the Chairman, “membership of the Section is critical to its activities and a fulfillment of our mapped out objectives. “Already we have started with aggressive gospel that every lawyer with conscience must first and foremost be a registered member of Spidel. “We therefore solicit that every lawyer of conscience should without any further prompting from us register and join all the suitable committees to help actualize our dream country and legal practice. “We need you and the Nation needs you more as a lawyer with conscience”.

He further informed NEC that the Section has set up an operational office in Abuja and has employed a Program Officer to man the office. The choice of office and Program Officer is to accelerate the institutionalization process of the Section.

Furthermore,  Dr Ubani announced that the Section has two main objectives which are (1) pursuit of public interest issues in the Nation generally and (2) Development of legal framework for accelerated economic development in the country. He, therefore, informed NEC that they have established two groups, namely The Public Interest Law Group and The Development Law Group for the Section.  He emphasized the fact that there is a strong link between law and economic development. The Public Interest Law Group will be chaired by Mr Femi Falana SAN, while The Development Law Group will be chaired by Dr Sam Amadi. The membership of the two groups according to him  will be announced very soon.

The Section has also established Spidel Young Lawyers’ Forum.  This is still part of the institutionalization process and mainstreaming spidel objectives in the consciousness of young lawyers. “We must consciously and strategically groomed our young lawyers who will take the legal profession to the Next Level”, he emphasized. The appointment will soon be announced too.

The Chairman briefed NEC   that SPIDEL will be engaging in strategic Impact Litigations. This they will do by working closely with other NBA Sections and other Committees like Public Interest Litigation Committee to undertake in strategic impact litigations in certain critical areas that deserve judicial intervention.  According to him the recent Practice Direction of the Federal High Court made in favour of a prospective litigant(FIRS) requires timely intervention by NBA as the only body that stands in vanguard against oppression by any government in power.

On Twitter ban, the Section is collaborating with the Committee to seek legal reliefs just as the chairman as a citizen of the country has already filed his personal action to protest the violation of his right to free speech.

Niger Delta Development Project, Promoting the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Federalism Project, 2023 National General Election and other Thematic Issues over national development will be the engagement of the Section for the next two years of the administration under the able leadership of Dr Ubani and his Council Members.

Finally the Chairman informed the House that the President of the Bar, Mr Olumide Akpata launched A Human Rights App at the end of the Conference of the Section in Ibadan code-named “SOROSOKE”. The purpose of the App is to aid the members of the general public who are victims of human rights abuses in reporting and tracking the abuses. The various members of SPIDEL at the branch level will be utilised effectively to seek reliefs on behalf of victims of human rights’ abuses throughout Nigeria.

The election of the Section took place recently in Ibadan after a highly successful conference that was planned by Dr Ubani with other members of the Conference Planning Committee in collaboration with the Local Organising Committee from NBA Ibadan Branch. It marked the end of the eventful regime of Prof Paul Ananaba SAN. The Council consists of Dr Monday Ubani as Chairman, Dr Princess Chukwuani as the Secretary, Mr Steve Abah as the Vice Chairman, Ms Funmi Adeogun as the Treasurer. Other Council Members are Dr Paul Ebiala,  Mr. Emeka Nwadioke, Ms Anne Agi, Chief Kunle Adegoke SAN, Mr Kunle Edun, Mr A.M. Karaye, Mrs Igbeaku Evulukwu, Mr Echo Godfrey, Mr Kola Omotinugbon and Prof Paul Ananaba SAN.

The report was well received by the President of the Bar and all  NEC members.  Some NEC  members commended the effort of the new leadership in paying attention to the second objective of SPIDEL which pertains to the issue of Development Law and the intention to appoint Cordinators at the various branch level.