According to Isiaka Olagunju who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Chairman of the Yoruba Leaders Forum (Egbe Amofin Oodua), the Yoruba tribe can’t abandon the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for any reason.
Olagunju made this statement in response to remarks made by the deputy leader of the YLF, Niyi Akintola, SAN, on the disorderly behavior of some attorneys who attended the just concluded NBA Conference.
According to Akintola, when the former NBA president, Olumide Akpata, assumed control of the organization’s operations, the Egbe Amofin Oodua “took a unified position that would not dignify” Akpata. This was revealed in an interview on a radio broadcast in Oyo State.
With the exception of those who had broken the confidence of the forum, Akintola claimed that no Supreme Court Justice had participated in the NBA conference.
Olagunju, however, claimed he was unaware the panel made such a conclusion in a conversation with Judiciary Watch on Tuesday.
He said, ‘I am not aware of that decision. However, Chief Akintola is entitled to his opinion, and I was not in the meeting. By the record you can get from Akpata’s administration, you can see that Yoruba lawyers played prominent roles. There are quite a number of Yoruba lawyers who chaired some committees, even the election was led by a Yoruba man.’
‘I was at the NBA conference, Professor (Folake) Solanke was there, Lateef Fagbemi, Mallam Yusuf Ali, Dr. Babatunde Ajibade (all Senior Advocates of Nigeria), several leaders and elders in Yoruba land were at the conference. So I am not aware, because I didn’t receive any handing over note to say that the Yoruba Lawyers Association should not participate in any of the NBA’s indices.’
“It is our bar; Yoruba is the cutting edge of the NBA, how could we abandon the house that we have built?’
A member of the association named Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, requested to be excluded from such an accord in the event that one ever existed.
According to the lawyer, the vice president of the Yoruba Leaders spoke for himself ‘and maybe people who attended such a meeting with him.’
He said, ‘I can tell you for free that any attempt at dividing the association along ethnic, regional or religious grounds, is bound to fail. It is a purely professional body, and while I recognize the right of people to hold views, I do not think it would be helpful to say that a regional body would be set up to say that whomever the president at one point or the other would not be supported for whatever reason.’
Seyi Wemimo, SAN, disagreed with Akintola’s assertion and claimed that the legal authority ought to have clarified on what would have been accomplished more effectively if Egbe Amofin had backed Akpata’s government.
He said, ‘The reality is that Akpata has already finished his term, and I don’t know whether if the Egbe Amofin group had supported him, we would have seen any greater performance.
“Again, as the president of the bar, Akpata is supposed to be independent-minded. Despite what Egbe amofin may have held, he (Akpata) succeeded in becoming the president of the bar, which shows that the body did not have any remarkable influence on the outcome of the election.’
According to Dele Adesina, SAN, who appeared to concur with the learned scholar, the Egbe Amofin had their complaints and no one could hold them responsible for making the choice they believed they intended to make and actually made.
He refuted the claims made and withheld his claims that Yoruba can’t deny and refused that he collaborated with NBA