NBA President Apologies, Condemns Lawyers’ Show Of Shame
- Berates action as ‘national embarrassment’
- Material distribution resumes after protesters looted venue
BY CHINYERE OBIORA – President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata has described as unaccepted and “a national embarrassment” the vandalising and looting of materials by some lawyers at the ongoing 62nd Annual General Conference (AGC) of the Association in Lagos
Akpata spoke against the backdrop of Tuesday’s incident where the registration centre for the collection of materials was broken into, vandalised and looted by some delegates with most conference materials carted away and lawyers/registration officers injured.
The NBA President described the incident as “a national embarrassment”, saying it was unfortunate to have “some of our members conduct themselves in a most despicable manner not expected of members of the profession.”
This is also as Activist-lawyer and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu lambasted the protesters for their shame of shame, saying; “Our situation passeth all understanding”.
Delivering an apology for his lateness at the President’s Dinner organized as one of the Conference’s highlights, Akpata said such untoward behaviour was totally unacceptable and should not have occurred in a gathering of learned gentlemen.
However, Akpata, who apologised for the ugly incident, ordered that the collection of conference materials earlier suspended resume on Wednesday.
In his reaction, former NHRC Chairman, Prof Odinkalu berated the protesting lawyers in a message on his Twitter handle, saying; “Nigeria is nothing if not impressive. Ask these same lawyers to protest over their governor stealing money or politicians in Abuja stealing the country into destitution & calling it fuel subsidy, they will object & tell you how respectable a bunch of lads they are. But we will protest over bags! Our situation passeth all understanding”.
The collection of conference materials by delegates at the Conference ran into a serious hitch on Tuesday as some participants stormed the Accreditation centre in Eko Atlantic City, Lagos to vandalise and loot the conference material and bags.
Chaos broke out over the delay in distributing Conference bags and materials as the delegates became impatience with several of them protesting the slow pace at which they were being attended to by the Registration officials.
In the process, some of the protesters also stopped one of the vehicles conveying the conference bags which arrived at the Eko Atlantic Accreditation Centre while others forcefully snatched the bags containing the conference materials
Amid the confusion, the registration booths were destroyed as the protesting lawyers carted away conference bags and other items. However, when normalcy returned, the collection of materials resumed at about 2 pm at Best Western Hotel, Victoria Island, opposite Eko Atlantic on Wednesday.
To ease the process and make it seamless, delegates at the new collection centre were now attended to in batches of 80 with the Technical Committee on Conference Planning (TCCP) reassuring delegates that there were enough bags and other materials to go round for every participant.
The Committee pleaded with all delegates to exercise patience and cooperate with the registration officers in ensuring everyone gets their due.
