Following the 22nd July letter by NBA President, Olumide Akpata, Esq titled; RE: PETITION AGAINST MS. ADEKUNBI OGUNDE BY THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION FOR ALLEGED PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT; calling on Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN to “in the best interest of our Association and of the legal profession in Nigeria. I am constrained to invite you to recuse yourself from chairmanship of the BoB henceforth and to allow for the emplacement of an interim leadership of the BOB, in order to enable the LPDC carry out this particular assignment, amongst others, without coming under an undue suspicion of impartiality. As a beacon of Rule of Law and due process, the NBA must continue to demonstrate that it is committed to the vision of its founding fathers, especially in its internal affairs. This situation, therefore, puts our foundational ethos as an Association on the line, and I trust that as a former President of the NBA and a very respected senior member of the Bar, you will take the honourable path of stepping-aside in the interest of justice, fairness, and posterity.”
Against this backdrop, we are reliably informed that past NBA Presidents are making frantic efforts to compel the embattled Chief to comply with the directives of the NBA.
A respected Bar leader, expressed concern that the optics are not good for the image of NBA and the entire judiciary sector and called for caution while assuring that Chief Wole Olanipekun will do the honorable thing.
Meanwhile a group of lawyers under the guise of Lawyers of Conscience, has promised to daily protest at the venue of the NBA Annual General Conference, if Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN doesn’t rescue himself or is recognized as Chairman of BoB during the Lagos Conference scheduled for August.
They called on lawyers to disregard the tribal slur by some lawyers trying to undermine the age long disciplinary measures by NBA that had kept the profession as the envy of all professions in terms of nobility.
