It is appalling that the NBA leadership that could not lend its voice to condemn the ruthless killing of one of our reinstated council chairmen, Hon Remi Abass, the chairman, Irewole Local Government Council Area of Osun State and other members and supporters of our party by the political hoodlums traceable to the PDP is now finding its voice to join the bandwagons of the enlisted and hired professional bodies as a propaganda tool to settle a purely judicial matter
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has given the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) a knock over its position on the withheld allocations of local government councils in the state.
The political party, in a statement by its Chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, described NBA leadership, as a meddlesome interloper .
The statement which was electronically signed reads:
When there was a hint that the NBA was needlessly dabbling into the issue of the delay in the payment of the allocations for the local government for six months running, we had thought that the body which ideally is peopled by a galaxy of noble professionals in the mastery of law was coming up with an enactment of a new law.
But alas! Its outing was a bundle of disappointment to the chagrin of the right-thinking members of the society!
That the NBA leadership could descend so low to have illegally constituted itself into a law court whereby it’s finding it appropriate in its estimation to dispense suspicious judgemental submission spoke volume of what irredeemable mess those saddled with the responsibility of leading the highly revered legal body has turned it to.
It is disheartening, worrisome and shameful that the NBA, a professional body that has a burden of integrity hanging on its neck by the way of the controversy that dotted its election that heralded the present leadership and the initial scheduling of the holding of this year’s annual conference of the body in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, before the emergency rule was introduced into the riverine state and controversially shifted same to Enugu State could have the shameless audacity to poke its nose in a matter that doesn’t concern it in Osun State.
In the first instance, the NBA is not a party to the suit. They have no locus to review it. The NBA is not the Supreme Court of Nigeria. They have no jurisdiction to review or even interpret the judgement of the Court of Appeal.
The only body that can interpret the judgements and give a final decision is the Supreme Court: Oriker Jev & Ors v Iyortom & Ors (2015) NWLR (pt 1483) 484 may be helpful to the leadership of the NBA.
The NBA is therefore, acting ultra vires its powers when it assumed the position of the Supreme Court.
What does the NBA mean by the court gave “tacit recognition” to Adeleke’s Local Government Council excos which has never, up to date, been a subject matter of litigation before any court in Nigeria?
There is nothing in law called ‘tacit recognition’ which the NBA has, disingenuously invented to justify its pecuniary consideration.
According to the NBA, the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal have already ruled on the Local Government matter. What suit do they want to file again? Do they want to appeal to the Supreme Court? Are they parties in the suit? Are they local government excos? What is their locus?
The NBA has deliberately taken its eyes off Attorney-General of the Federation v. Attorney-General of Abia & Ors SC/CV/343/2024, which is the Supreme Court’s most recent decision on local government financial autonomy.
No authority has the right to do anything on local governments or request for local government funds EXCEPT local governments themselves. Not Osun State government, Not NBA. Nobody at all.
No matter the efforts of the NBA to rewrite the step-by-step judicial activities and inactivities orchestrated by the Adeleke-led government that culminated into the current local government logjam in Osun State over the delay in the payment of the local government allocations in the state, it is an impossible utopia for the pungently compromised and seemingly pecuniarily induced NBA current leadership to perform the constitutional roles of the court.
It is appalling that the NBA leadership that could not lend its voice to condemn the ruthless killing of one of our reinstated council chairmen, Hon Remi Abass, the chairman, Irewole Local Government Council Area of Osun State and other members and supporters of our party by the political hoodlums traceable to the PDP is now finding its voice to join the bandwagons of the enlisted and hired professional bodies as a propaganda tool to settle a purely judicial matter.
In all of the mere repetitious submission of the leadership of the NBA on the issue at stake, where lies the position of the Court of Appeal judgement of the 10th of February, 2025 which reinstated the APC chairmen and councillors which the Peoples Democratic Party PDP-led administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke refused to appeal?
Recall that on 2nd March 2025, this same NBA, through its current president, Afam Osigwe, SAN, had criticised the Federal High Court for entertaining the suit brought before it on local government election disputes in Osun State.
“Speaking with the *Sunday PUNCH,* Osigwe stated that the genesis of the crisis in Osun could be traced to the Federal High Court’s decision on the local government suits, which he had no jurisdiction over.”
Had the NBA been a good record keeper, it would have saved itself of the recent avoidable yet another ignoble embarrassment. In one breath, the NBA maintained that the Federal High Court, which gave the judgments, had no jurisdiction, which was in tune with the Court of Appeal judgment of 10th February, 2025 but in a twinkling of an eye, made a sharp u-turn and advised ever brilliant Attorney-General of the Federation to ignore that Court of Appeal judgment to which the same Court of Appeal again maintained it stands with on 13th June, 2025.
The gaffe might not be too damaging to the legal profession in that such an NBA current leadership position is not the law of the land and the audience of the opinion are more knowledgeable and intelligent than such a skewed view.
However, the danger is the signal it has sent more so that the dancing governor of the state has rolled out drums celebrating the “pronouncement” as a gospel truth of the matter on 20th August, 2025.
We strongly advise the current leadership of the NBA to desist from using the name of the highly respected noble profession to trade for personal gains.
e-SIGNED:
Sooko TAJUDEEN LAWAL, Chairman, Osun State APC.
