Abdulbasit Suleiman, a co-convener of the New Nigerian Bar
Association (NNBA), says more than 5,000 lawyers have registered to join the
newly-formed association.
The NNBA was formed following the controversy that trailed
the dis-invitation of Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, as a speaker at the
just concluded annual general conference of the NBA.
In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, Suleiman said
the dis-invitation of the governor is not the reason for creating a faction of
the NBA.
He said: “We, the conveners of the new NBA, are not fans of el-Rufai.”
“We all have our
reservations on el-Rufai’s government. But since you have invited this man,
let’s hear from him- for him to answer our questions before we take any action
against him.
“Some people wrote a petition against him without giving him
a fair hearing. This is against our motto, which is to uphold the rule of law.
We did not do that. El-Rufai was not given that opportunity.”
Suleiman said one of the reasons for creating the new
association is that the NBA is being run by a “cabal” who do not care about the
welfare of the larger population of lawyers.
“Reasons for forming
the new NBA are many but the first is that the NBA is being hijacked by some
few cabals,” he said.
“NBA activity is just circulating between some few people.
We have more than 200,000 registered members in Nigeria but I can tell you
authoritatively that less than 100 people are benefiting from the NBA.
“Most of us are not benefiting from the NBA. We are paying
our dues, we follow all the rules and regulations but our benefits and
interests are not being protected.”
Suleiman said the intention of the group is not to create
division but to create a competition for the NBA.
“We are not dividing
the bar. We are trying to form an association to create a competition for the
NBA,” he said.
“If we have two or more, there will be competing. If we look
at developed countries, they have more than one lawyers’ associations. Why must
we restrict ourselves to one.”
“As I’m talking to you now, we are still counting. We have
more than 5,000 members that have registered with us and we are still counting.
“Starting from tomorrow, some state governments will be
receiving our letters, notifying them of the formation.”
Sulieman also said the group will go to court if it faces
opposition from the “bigwigs” in the profession.
He also denied the allegation that the group is being
sponsored saying “we are ‘bankrolling’ ourselves, we are like-minds, no one is
sponsoring us”.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com