Six NBA Election Appeal Committee Members Resign Over Mischaracterization, Bias

In one of the major fallouts from the recently-concluded elections into the next Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), members the Association’s first-ever
National Elections Appeals Committee have announced their intention to jointly resign their positions.

In a letter addressed to the President of the NBA, Olumide Akpata and made available to Lawyard, the committee members said their action was predicated on a letter dated July 26, 2022, in which a foremost lawyer and one of the presidential candidates in the last elections, Chief J.K. Gadzama, SAN, aired a number of grievances about the conduct of the polls. They added that their action was meant to pave the way for a new appeals body to be constituted, with a view to giving Gadzama’s grievances a fair hearing, among other things.

They lamented what they described as a Chief Gadzama s mis-characterisation of individual members of the appeals committee, which they described as undeserved.

On the contrary resignation letter noted the conduct of the exemplary conduct of the committee chairman,
Mrs. Funmi Roberts and other members in their efforts to rid the committee, or its conduct of the polls, of any allegations of bias – and to avoid the very allegations the learned silk made in his letter.

They noted the objections made by the the learned silk in question against the participation of members of the appeals committee in the elections, but added that had these allegations been made earlier, the individuals in question would have had no choice but to recuse themselves from the process.

Regretting the inconvenience their mass resignations would have on the current transition process, the committee said they saw no other way to express their indignation over Chief Gadzama’s accusations, and to assert their fidelity to the greater good of the NBA, which they said must supercede the interest of any individual or group within it.

The letter, dated July 30, 2022, was signed by the following:

OLUFUNMILAYO ROBERTS, ESQ.

AUGUSTINE AJINEH

GRACE S. MAMSWA, ESQ.

HERBERT NWOYE, ESQ.

HUWAILA M. IBRAHIM, ESQ.

OKEY OHAGBA, ESQ.

MATTHEW EGBADON, ESQ.

STEPHEN OBAJAJA, ESQ.

ROSEMARY CHINELO CHIKWENDU, ESQ.

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