Any end in sight for Ilorin bar crisis?

The crisis was allegedly precipitated by the move of the present executive of the branch chaired by Barrister Mobolaji Ojibara to probe the immediate past team led by Barrister Rafiu Balogun over the construction of the bar centre located in the State High Court premises. Though the past executive said it is not averse to […]

The crisis was allegedly precipitated by the move of the present executive of the branch chaired by Barrister Mobolaji Ojibara to probe the immediate past team led by Barrister Rafiu Balogun over the construction of the bar centre located in the State High Court premises. Though the past executive said it is not averse to the probe, its grievance was the constitution of the probe panel which it believes was biased and a deliberate attempt to persecute it.
This raging battle which has apparently harbingered division in the association, culminated in the purported impeachment of the chairman by some members believed to be loyal to the immediate past executive even as the Ojibara-led team slammed suspension on the immediate past chairman and other members sympathetic to him.
As the crisis festers, a court case was instituted against the branch by Balogun who was challenging the constitution of the panel. Balogun who insisted that his hands are clean said an independent auditor would be suitable for the planned probe instead of selecting members that would come up with premeditated outcome.
Ojibara had said the members were suspended for “suspected false and fraudulent accounting and for their respective roles in causing the branch unprecedented financial embarrassment and loss in the guise of reconstruction of the bar centre.”
Balogun on his part described his purported suspension as “garage brigandage”. Speaking through the immediate past vice chairman, Dr. Abdulkadir Abikan, he said: “What is very clear is that it was a kind of garage brigandage that was exhibited. Those who served Mobolaji Ojibara impeachment notice gave him two weeks. That’s what is called fair hearing in law. The same fair hearing requires that if you are going to make allegations that would justify suspension of an individual, it has to go through procedures of our law.”
That was the situation in the branch as both parties exchanged hot words and engaged in fierce media war; the development which analysts and observers view as a slap on the integrity of the bar.
However, after many months of ferocious attacks on each other, there seems to be an end in sight to the crisis that has weighed down the branch. This indication emerged on Friday night at the 2014 annual dinner and award night held in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. The ceremony was a reunion of sort as it witnessed the presence of all warring parties, including the immediate past chairman even as the NBA President, Mr. Augustine Alegeh took time off his busy schedule to attend the event.
His attendance was indeed significant at a time the branch was struggling to overcome its internal challenges occasioned by the crisis between the incumbent executive and his predecessor. Therefore, Alegeh, the 27th NBA president who inherited the crisis which his predecessor, Mr. Okey Wali, SAN, also tried hard to resolve, saw the dinner as an opportunity to tell the warring parties a home truth on the need to sheathe their swords and focus on the bigger problems ahead of them.
He said the branch was widely believed to have strong mechanisms to deal with problems having been blessed with many eminent members of the branch. He said he gave the parties till January to resolve all lingering issues, saying he would be forced to invite them after January if the parties did not iron out their differences.
He said: “The first time I met your (Ilorin NBA) Chief Judge, Justice Bamigbola at the NJC, he called me aside and said please there is problem in Ilorin. I met Justice Isa Ayo Salami with my brother, Justice Solihu Mohammed (Grand Khadi of the state), he called me aside again and said this Ilorin problem had to be resolved.
 “If people of such repute and height in the profession are worried about our problems, it is a shame to us. We should give them happiness and joy whenever they talk of the bar they left to us. We should all take it as a personal challenge. I should not be involved in resolving Ilorin problem. Ilorin has enough senior advocates to constitute a branch. The senior advocates in Ilorin, I’m sure, they are more than 30. There should be no problem in Ilorin and I urge all of you to please, take an active role in resolving the problem.
 “If my lord, Chief Judge wanted to be draconian, he could have asked the judges to adjourn those matters concerning that and there is nothing you will do. And you know the Kaduna resolution. NBA met and took a resolution that if you have a case against the branch, you are suspended from NBA activities. We don’t want to go that route.
 “There must be peace in Ilorin. And if there is no peace by January, I will invite all the parties to Abuja, for reconciliation meeting. I invited a branch for a meeting, they waited with me in the secretariat and I saw them at 2 a.m. By the time I saw them, they had reconciled. So the day I invite you from Ilorin to come to Abuja for a meeting, I wouldn’t pay for your ticket, hotel, I will keep you in the secretariat till about 3 a.m. By the time I call you, you have reconciled. But please, do not allow Omowale Alegeh from Benin to come and resolve your problem in Ilorin.
 “We must gravitate to the bigger problems that confront us. In the profession, we have opinion moulders and we are leaders wherever we are. Our nation is confronted with severe challenges at this time on all fronts. We are facing an election and JUSUN was going on strike. If JUSUN is on strike and they do primaries, you won the primaries, they go to Abuja and do substitution, where will you go to if JUSUN is on strike and there is no court? These are bigger problems for NBA to tackle than whether a house in Ilorin bar centre is being built or not being built.”
Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ayinla Bamigbola harped on unity in the bar, saying lawyers cannot play the role expected of them if they are divided.
 “When we love one another, we would be able to focus on championing the course of justice and upholding the rule of law. The bar must not fail and we don’t want a situation where litigants would threaten judges in the court room, that would be dangerous for the judiciary.”
The chairman in his opening address appealed to his colleagues and elders to refrain from blame trading and finger pointing, saying, “we are now at the stage of taking drastic actions by standing firm in ensuring that the seeds of discontent do not flower and the pillars of righteousness erected by the founding fathers of the profession are not brought down on needless constraint or passing expedience. We are at that stage when we need to come together to reposition and elevate the image of Ilorin Bar as a pacesetter and primus inter pares within the comity of branches of bar associations in the country.”
While stakeholders hope for a total resolution of issues of contention, our correspondent learnt that parties in the crisis may have to discontinue the court cases instituted as part of a peace-building process in the branch.