The Yoruba cannot leave the Nigerian Bar Association, according to Isiaka Olagunju, a senior lawyer in Nigeria and the head of the Yoruba Leaders Forum (Egbe Amofin Oodua).
Olagunju made this statement in response to remarks made by the deputy leader of the YLF, Niyi Akintola, SAN, on the disorderly behaviour of some attorneys at the just completed NBA Conference.
Akintola claimed in an interview on a radio show in Oyo State that the Egbe Amofin Oodua “adopted a united attitude that would not dignify” Akpata when the former NBA president, Olumide Akpata, took over the organization’s activities.
Except for those who had abused the forum’s trust, Akintola claimed that no Supreme Court Justice had attended the NBA meeting.
Olagunju, however, claimed he was unaware the panel made such a decision in a conversation with Judiciary Watch on Tuesday.
He said, “I am not aware of that decision. However, Chief Akintola is entitled to his opinion, and I was not in the meeting. By the record you can get from Akpata’s administration, you can see that Yoruba lawyers played prominent roles. There are quite a number of Yoruba lawyers who chaired some committees, even the election was led by a Yoruba man.
“I was at the NBA conference, Professor (Folake) Solanke was there, Lateef Fagbemi, Mallam Yusuf Ali, Dr Babatunde Ajibade (all Senior Advocates of Nigeria), several leaders and elders in Yoruba land were at the conference. So I am not aware, because I didn’t receive any handing over note to say that the Yoruba Lawyers Association should not participate in any of the NBA’s indices.
“It is our bar; Yoruba are the cutting edge of the NBA, how could we abandon the house that we have built?”
A member of the association named Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, requested to be excluded from such an agreement in the event that one ever existed.
The attorney claimed that the Yoruba Leaders deputy leader spoke for “perhaps persons who attended such a meeting with him” in addition to himself.
