National
Obasanjo Boycotts NBA Conference
By Ella Makondo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo boycotted the just concluded 60th Virtual Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association( NBA), a source said.
Controversy had trailed the conference when thousands of lawyers signed a petition for the NBA to remove Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, from the list of speakers due to human rights concerns that were raised against him in a petition.
The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association had at meeting resolved that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn .
Its decision was therefore communicated to the governor.
But the disinvitation of El-Rufai generated an outrage with the Muslim Lawyers’ Association of Nigeria ( MULAN) who asked that Obasanjo and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike be removed as speakers at the conference.
“We insist that if any standard is set for withdrawing El-Rufai, the same should apply to other speakers too,” an official of the body told The Punch.
“El-Rufai is a public officer and any other person who has the same record of allegations of human rights abuses should also be disqualified. We expect that the same standard should apply to Obasanjo and Wike,” Abikan a Professor of Law at the University of Ilorin, said.
It was gathered that while speakers including Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, spoke at the conference, Obasanjo did not, while Wike sent a representative.
Dr. Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, told The PUNCH via telephone interview on Saturday that the former military head of state did not attend or speak at the conference.
“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was obviously not at the conference but I don’t know why he did not attend the event,” he said.
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