Stop OBJ, Wike From NBA Conference – Lawyers

By Emmanuel Adigwe

A group of lawyers has urged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to disinvite former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, as speakers at the forthcoming annual conference of the association.

This development is coming after the NBA withdrew its invitation to Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, as a speaker at the conference after the backlash that followed the invitation of the governor.

The lawyers, under the umbrella of the Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigerian Bar Association (RAMINBA), stated that both Obasanjo and Wike have acted against the rule of law in the past.

They stated this in a statement  issued on Saturday by its chairman, Adesina Ogunlana, RAMINBA chairman, and Ayo Ademiluyi, the secretary, accusing Obasanjo of masterminding the Odi massacre of 1999 and attempt to tamper with the constitution for a third-term agenda.

“We are however baffled that the list of speakers at the conference still retains the names of Balogun Olusegun Obasanjo, retired general and former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as that of Mr Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State,” the group said.

“We are persuaded that these men by their antecedents vis-a-vis the respect for and promotion for the rule of law and due process are not fit for an invitation as speakers in a function such as the conference of Nigerian Bar Association, which mantra remains promoting the rule of law.

“Balogun Obasanjo is known in Nigeria’s most recent history to have launched some of the most brutal assaults on the concept of rule of law. Kindly recall that it was Obasanjo, sworn to uphold the constitution of the land, who refused to obey the Supreme Court order for the release of the N21 billion Lagos state local government funds illegally and oppressively withheld by his administration.

Governor Wike was also accused of  destroying properties during the COVID-19 lockdown in his state irrespective of a court order against his action.

“He is the same governor who ordered the demolition without a court order of two hotels in Rivers state recently. The Rivers states task force under the control of Governor Wike is an agency notorious for violation of human rights of citizens in carrying out their tasks,” the lawyers stated.

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