Despite NBA protest, Olanipekun swears in new attorneys
Chief Wole Olanipekun, the chairman of the Body of Benchers (BoB), called 4,711 recent law graduates to the Nigerian Bar yesterday in Abuja, despite opposition from the NBA, led by Mr. Yakubu Maikyau.
The NBA had requested Olanipekun to resign as chairman and not preside over the call to bar of the new attorneys in a statement dated December 4.
“I requested the chairman of the BoB to recuse himself from presiding over the call to bar ceremony scheduled for December 6 and 7, 2022, for reasons clearly articulated therein,” the statement, signed by Maikyau, reads.
“On December 4, 2022, I sent the letter via email to the chairman and all benchers. On December 5, 2022, I also gave the BoB secretary a hard copy of the letter and 150 extra copies for distribution to all benchers.
It should be noted that on July 22, 2022, my immediate predecessor in office wrote to the chairman of the BoB requesting that he step down from his position on the same grounds I have outlined in my letter. Despite the fact that the letter had been delivered to the BoB for more than five months, the chairman refused to acknowledge it or bring it up for discussion.
“My current letter is to draw attention to the earlier call made by my predecessor and highlight the harm being done to the legal profession as a result of our collective silence over such devastating issue, with the expectation that the chairman will see cause to show remorse, and for the BoB to ask the chairman to recuse himself knowing that no one is bigger than the legal profession,” the author of the letter wrote.
The NBA President was reportedly “absent” from yesterday’s ceremony, which was presided over by Olanipekun. In his speech, Olanipekun stated that it was important to dispel some “misconceptions” regarding the BoB, which he claimed was a statutory creation in charge of the formal call to bar of those aspiring to become attorneys.
