Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN, has expressed his loss of confidence in the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) following its just concluded controversial national officers’ election.
Mr Okutepa, known for his blunt commentaries on the Nigerian Bar and the bench as well as governance generally, said in a post he shared on X on Sunday that he has lost faith in the association as a professional body as a result of the election that has received mixed reactions from various quarters.
The senior lawyer alleged that the election, which produced Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, also a SAN, as the association’s 33rd president, “stripped the association of the credibility, objectivity, honesty and integrity” it once stood for.”
According to him, “every stage of the processes” leading to what he described as a “sham coronation” was manipulated to produce a predetermined outcome.
He alleged that the election was marred by illegality of the composition of the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) which oversaw the process and the lack of independence of the committee, which, he said, was teleguided to produce a pre-determined outcome, capping his review by saying, “It is sad that NBA has lost everything noble.”
