Crisis in NBA, Aggrieved Members Seek to Register Another Body, LSN

It was reported that disgruntled members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have decided to form the Law Society of Nigeria (LSN) as a new umbrella organization for lawyers over an allegation of being sidelined by the leadership of the NBA.

Meanwhile, We understands that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) had rejected the registration of the new lawyers’ union- LSN.

The CAC further supported its decision to reject the registration of LSN by citing a dispute with the NBA and claiming that the name “Law Society of Nigeria” is “closely similar to Nigerian Bar Association and may mislead” stakeholders in the legal profession.

The CAC also disclosed that the LSN “lacks the distribution and national character,” to be registered as an umbrella body for legal practitioners in Nigeria .

But ENigeria Newspaper understands that, in a letter of protest signed by their solicitor and former general secretary of the NBA, Mr. Nimi Walson-Jack, who also serves as LSN’s vice president, the arrowheads of the new association swiftly rejected the CAC’s position, adding that they are “victims of patent error, probable administrative inadvertence, and oversight.”

Mr. Douglas Ogbankwa, Publicity Secretary of LSN, responded to the CAC’s decision by saying that the promoters chose to adopt a similar name that had already been approved by the CAC after the CAC declined to register the suggested name.

NBA-President-Yakubu-Maikyau

Meanwhile, some of the names in the new association include: Mr. Kunle Ogunba (SAN), Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), Mr. Mela Audu Nunghe (SAN), and Amb. Garba Gajam. The Bar Leaders are also listed as Trustees of the new association.

Although the direction of the NBA’s fissures is not yet visible, it is clear that neither Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau on whose shoulder the leadership of the NBA rests is able to reconcile aggrieved members and put an end to the rumblings inside the prestigious Nigerian Bar Association.

ENIGERIA NEWSPAPER