According to Pelumi Olajengbesi, an attorney based in Abuja, the NBA President, Olumide Akpata’s absence, from the Body of Benchers’ Meeting on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, is unacceptable and not a sign of good leadership.
This was stated in a statement that Olajengbesi, a lawyer, personally signed and issued on Wednesday and made available to InsightnaijaTV.
The Body of Benchers, which is even higher than the Nigerian Bar Association, which Akpata currently leads, is the top organization of legal professionals, according to the lawyer.
He went on to say that avoiding responsibility rather than protesting in the right way was his intention.
The statement partly reads; For a meeting that was hybrid and of such importance, attended by key stakeholders in the legal profession and even past Presidents of the NBA; it does not sit well for the new wigs to be called to Bar today to know that their outgoing President absconded from a meeting in preparation for their welcome to the Nigerian Bar, and other issues affecting the legal profession.
I am aware that the NBA President had earlier written a letter requesting the incumbent Chairman of the BOB, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN to step down over a petition against a lawyer in his chamber accused of unprofessional conduct. This I will deliberately refrain myself from talking about.
Nonetheless, is such disrespect necessary on the premise that he asked the BOB Chairman to step down and he hasn’t? Bold of him to assume that his ‘one’ letter is sufficient to unseat the BOB Chairman without further deliberations by other members, and evaluation on the issue.
That said, I must say it is a lamentable reputation with which to end one’s tenure. Should Akpata contempt the Body that called him to Bar in the first place? Even more discourteous is that no explanation has been given in this regard at this time. You cannot abscond from a meeting because things don’t go your way, when there are other right-thinking persons making themselves available to better the legal profession. I consider it a mockery of the core values of our amiable profession. I do hope he can make this right.
