A Benin based Law Attorney, Olayiwola Afolabi said the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) remain one indivisible body, stressing that it is wrong and unconstitutional for some persons parading themselves as splinter body.
A splinter group, under the platform of New Nigerian Bar Association (NNBA) recently emerged from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on the grounds that their interests were no longer taken into consideration.
Bar. Afolabi who spoke with newsmen while setting agenda for the just concluded Edo NBA election which ushered in new elected executive to pilot the affairs of the Association for the next four years, said the splinter group was targeted at promoting sentiment and ethnicity.
"They are trying to bring about sentiment and ethnicity, it is wrong. The law forbids them from having a splinter body. There is no way you can have splinter group because NBA is one. It is for the whole country just like the federal government.
Also speaking, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, J.C. Igbokwe SAN said, the splinter group are just playing and will soon die a natural death. According to him, the NBA is a statutory body for lawyers in Nigeria and cannot be divided. ”The Nigeria Bar Association is one and cannot be divided, it is a statutory body for lawyers in Nigeria. Whatever may be there anger, can be settled amicably, NBA is not divided and nobody can divide NBA. In as much as they have the right to form any association, not the NBA. They are free to have Northern Lawyers Association, we have Eastern Lawyers Association, Midwestern Lawyers Association. The Nigerian Constitution does not permit that, it is a constitutional matter,“ He concluded.
On the contrary, Barrister Dele Igbinedion, former member, Bendel State House of Assembly said members interests would be well protested following the emergence of a splinter. "In the coming days and months, the agitations to splint NBA will gather momentum."
He described the NBA executive positions as people of merchandize who are more interested in the economy of power than the practical effects of the power on the people.
"It is no secret that the Nigeria Bar Association we have now is no more pursuing the original aims and objectives for which it was set up. It is no more in pursuant of fundamental rights, no longer interested in the administration of justice, issues that are dear to the people or interested in the welfare of members."
He posited that though the law did not permit the existence of a parallel body but that any law that forces people to belong to any association from which they cannot resign runs contrary with the constitutional right to freedom of association.
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