“ONLY A SEASONED BAR MAN CAN LEAD THE IKEJA BAR WELL”

On Saturday the Squib held an interview with Yinka Farounbi esq., the 1^st Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Ikeja branch. Farounbi is a candidate for the post of chairman in the forthcoming elections of the branch which will take place on the 7^th May 2012.

He spoke about his aspiration and the Ikeja Bar among other things. Please read on.

QUESTION: PLEASE CAN WE KNOW YINKA FAROUNBI BETTER?

ANSWER: My name is Olayinka Oyeniyi Farounbi. I am from Ora-Igbomina Osun State. After my secondary school education, I worked for about five years as a factory operator with Poly Ventures Nig. Ltd. Lagos from where I gained admission to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife to read law. I graduated in 1992 and was called to the Bar in 1993. I did my National Youth Service with Fola Ajijola & Co at 5, Adesina Street, Ikeja, Lagos. I thereafter joined the chambers of Olubunmi Oyewole & Co (now Hon. Justice Olubunmi Oyewole) from 1995 to 1999 before I became the Principal Partner of Messrs. Yinka Oyeniyi Farounbi & Co of 114, Ikorodu Road, Fadeyi, Lagos. I am the legal secretary to Osun North East of the Anglican Diocese. Ever since I was called, I have been in active private legal practice and I have handled cases in all our courts.

I am married to Biodun Farounbi, a caterer of exceptional quality. To the glory of God we have children of both sexes. I am the incumbent 1^st Vice Chairman of NBA Ikeja Branch. Before this, I was the Auditor of the branch between 2000/2002. Again I was the Assistant General Secretary between 2002/2004 and between 2006/2008 I was the Financial Secretary of the branch. I joined and was actively involved in the activities of the branch since 1998; that was about five years after my call to the Bar. Ever since then I have been attending the national NBA meetings and the NEC (National Executive Committee) meetings also.

QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE TERM “BAR MAN” AND HOW FAR APPLICABLE IS IT TO YOU?

ANSWER: Someone that is not just a legal practitioner and merely a financial member of the N.B.A. he is someone who participates in what can be termed the day to day affairs of the organization. He is someone who cannot be regarded as a stranger to the affairs of the organization. As I said earlier, I have been participating fully in the affairs of the NBA Ikeja since 1998 though prior to 1998 I have been attending most of the meetings of the branch but I became very actively involved in 1998. Since 1998 till date the number of meetings of our branch that I did not attend can be counted on the fingers of one hand ditto the conferences and NEC meetings. It is only a “Bar Man” to the core who is dedicated to the affairs of the organization that can go through the things myself and my colleagues go through in the service of the NBA. For the sake of the Bar we have had cause to leave our homes for days on end in the service of the Bar.

QUESTION: IN YOUR VIEW, HOW RELEVANT IS THE BAR TO THE ISSUE OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT?

ANSWER: The Bar is very relevant indeed to the development of the nation. By our training, lawyers are natural leaders  are operators of the political system of democracy that we practice.

You will note that a third of government, that is, the judiciary, is exclusively manned and maintained by members of the Bar, legal practitioners. Even in the executive arm of government, the very important post of Attorney General and Minister of Justice is exclusively reserved for legal practitioners.

In short in a society of laws, the Bar must be very relevant. We are the enlightened ones and we are the wise men of our community. And you will also note that there is very high ethical content in our legal training and if we would not encourage mismanagement, corruption and other vices in our leaders and society, our country will be much better for it.

QUESTION: PLEASE ASSESS THE IKEJA BAR IN THE COMMUNITY OF OTHER BRANCHES?

ANSWER: This question is a little difficult for me to answer not because I do not know what to say but because my answer could be regarded as self serving. However which all due respect, Ikeja is first among equals among the 96 branches of the NBA. Ikeja stands like a colossus. Locally, nationally and internationally, Ikeja is known for its objectivity, activism, courage and welfarism. But for the Ikeja Bar, there would not have been NBA today. In 1992, in the aftermath of the disrupted Port Harcourt conference, the NBA went into limbo and it was the Ikeja Bar that provided the leadership for the restoration of the Bar. It is on record that Ikeja again provided leadership and even the muscle at the 2011 Annual Conference to frustrate the plans of the current national leadership of the NBA to impose unpopular policies like the creation of State Bar on Nigerian lawyers.

Our Bar is one of the biggest branches and we are not big for nothing. We take care of our members during conferences and NEC meetings and we have successfully built an attractive and imposing secretariat, which even now not fully developed is already the envy of others.

Our voice in and outside the legal profession is highly respected and in fact to so many members of the public the only NBA they know and care for is NBA Ikeja Branch.

QUESTION: YOU ARE ASPIRING TO BECOME THE NEXT CHAIRMAN, WHY?

ANSWER: Thank you very much for this question. Candidly NBA Ikeja Branch at this period of time needs a dedicated and experienced “Bar Man” to lead it and I have got the qualification. I have worked successfully with no less than four administrations an during this period I have not only understudied them I have equally cut my teeth as an administrator within these periods. The NBA assignment is not one to be taken up over night otherwise no success will ever be recorded, it is not at five minutes to twelve midnight that you can adjust to the demands of that office if you are not hitherto used to the system as a “Bar Man” it will be impossible to make any meaningful impact in that office, you will just be “A stranger in the Bar.” It has happened before at the national level and we all paid dearly for it. No matter what detractors  may say, our Branch, the Ikeja Bar is already a success story.

The reality of this success story is evident to all except those who out of malice, ignorance or mischief choose to close their eyes to it.

Internally and externally, for reasons I have enumerated earlier in this interview, the Ikeja Bar is a force to be reckoned with in the NBA and in the country. I wish to say with due modesty, that I am one of the architects of the success story of the Ikeja Bar. I have the requisite standing, experience and knowledge not only to maintain and sustain the present standards but to excel them.

I am not a newcomer to the affairs of our dear Branch. I am not going to be an experimenter or somebody learning on the job, using “try and miss” tactics. Remember I have been part and parcel of four different administrations in the past ten years and I have understudied all of them, in fact it will be a waste of my years of tutelage if someone like me chooses not to offer myself to the extremely tasking service of Chairman of the Ikeja Bar.

It is now that Ikeja Bar is admired all over the world that some people want to join the train, thinking only of the glamour of the office of Chairman. I have been tested and tried. This is the time to serve the Ikeja Bar at its highest level.

QUESTION: WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING THE ELECTION?

ANSWER: My chances are very bright. Our colleagues know their true leaders, they know those who have been  serving them with dedication, industry, integrity an intelligence. They have accepted our candidacy and bought into our programme.

We don’t need to tell them lies or exaggerate on our strengths and capacities. I am very sure of the wide acceptability of the Omole Regime in which in which I now serve as the immediate Deputy and I am sure that the electorate will not ignore or disregard our record of service. By the grace of God on May 7^th 2012, we shall be elected into office as Chairman to continue the good work. Remember, nobody changes a winning team.         

ADESANYA VS DELEOYE VS UMARU ERI VS DAHIRU MUSDAPHER CJN

On Friday 8^th March 2012, the Editor-in-chief and publisher of the Squib-visited professor S.A. Adesanya S.A.N at his Lagos Island Chambers to take down the response of the egg-head silk to the Squib’s publication of vol 12 no6 of 5^th of March 2012 on the removal of the professor from the Disciplinary Committee of the bar.

I saw your publication on me  (vol 12 no6 of 5^th of March 2012) and I wondered why you went to press without hearing my own side of the story.

According to the story you published, they claimed that I have been removed from the Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers. Let me tell you, I have not been removed. I am in Court against them, the Body of Benchers and I have obtained an Order of Injunction restraining them from interfering with my membership of the Committee. I will give you a copy of the said Order of Court. What they have done (purporting to remove me from the Body of Benchers) is contemptuous of the Court and I have begun contempt proceedings against them.

This is not the first time they made attempt to remove me from the Committee. In June 2011 I received a letter from the Secretary of the Body of Benchers that I should no longer participate in the proceedings of the Disciplinary committee pending the determination of my suit- Pro. Adesanya V. Hon. Justice Umaru Eri & Ors.

I protested verbally at the sending of this letter to me and it was later withdrawn. But only very recently, by a letter dated 17^th February 2012, the Chairman of the Body of Benchers who is also now the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Dahiru Musdapher wrote to me purporting to terminate my membership of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. But can that stand in view of the Order of Court?

I went to Court on a very simple reason- should Umaru Eri who is being mentioned freely as being involved and investigated over an alleged 6 billion naira fraud competent and fit to continue presiding over the Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers? That is the case that is still pending in Court.

As for Dele Oye, I don’t know the boy. I was here in my office in 2009 when two of his staff Elizabeth Ishola and Jane Orumen came in to brief me that I should come to their defence as the EFCC is after them for a crime they did not commit. They briefed me that the EFCC was alleging they were the Directors of particular companies who took loans from the Oceanic Bank.

According to them, they never were directors of those companies talk less of taking loans. That it was their boss, Dele Oye who used their names without their knowledge or permission as Directors of the said companies. At that point in time, Dele Oye had fled abroad. Here in this office on that day, Dele Oye called these people and instructed them to go to a particular place to collect money and flee the country.

I was shocked at this development and I spoke with Dele Oye. You know what he told me-: “Baba, I have immunity!”  On the 14^th August 2009 a Friday, Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank was arrested and on 17^th August 2009, a Monday, Dele Oye organized for the change of names of the names of these my clients as Directors of the Companies. The change and substitution was fraudulent. He just made up documents and signatures. For example my client Jane Orumen never wrote any letter of resigning any Directorship of Dilivent International Limited, because she was never a director in the first instance. That company and two others Prisky Gold Nigeria Limited and Flotsome Investment Limited by the advertisement of the C.B.N of debtors took unrepaid loans to the tune of #22 billion from Oceanic Bank.

I understand that at the recent NEC meeting of the NBA in Akure Ondo State, J.B Daudu, S.A.N, the NBA president was defending the retention of Dele Oye as NBA prosecutor before the Disciplinary Committee, saying that the boy is innocent under the law.

You see there is a Plea Bargain and Settlement Agreement between the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and Cecilia Ibru dated 15^th September 2010 over the criminal charges brought by the EFCC against Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank. That Plea Bargain signed by the A.G of the Federation on behalf of the Federal Government and Cecilia Ibru as the accused seriously implicated Dele Oye as a criminal.

Interestingly when I told Mohammed Adoke, the Attorney-General about the Plea Bargain, he denied at first, signing any such document. So I procured a Certified True Copy of it. If you look at page 71 of the P.B.A, Dele Oye is listed as No. 20 in the 44 member Ibru group and if you look at page 73 of the P.B.A, Dele Oye is No. 7 in the 21 member “IBRU RELATED PARTIES”. Now if you go to paragraph 2.1 of page 11 of the P.B.A, you will see where it is stated as follows:

UNDERTAKING OF PARTIES

Undertaking by Mrs. Ibru

Mrs. Ibru hereby agrees, covenants and undertakes as follows:- She acknowledges that various counts in FHC charges and High Court charges are not baseless or vexatious, but are based on the contraventions by Mrs. Ibru and the Ibru Group of various laws prevailing at the time the action were taken or the omissions were made

If you now go to paragraph 2.1.5 of page 12, you will read the following:

“she has the authority and consent of each members of the Ibru Group to negotiate and enter into this agreement as it pertains to their respective activities, actions and any of their Forfeiture Assets”;

Finally if you go to paragraph 10 of page 21 of the P.B.A, you will see the reason why Cecilia Ibru has powers to negotiate on behalf of members of the Ibru Group.

That paragraph read thus:

MISCELLANY

(Save as otherwise waived by the HAG in any respect, or in regard to any one of the Ibru Group), this agreement is entirely contingent and conditional upon:

the production by Mrs. Ibru of a power of Attorney from each member of the Ibru Group, authorizing Mrs. Ibru to enter into this agreement on each such member’s behalf and/or to undertake the obligations in this Agreement as it relates to the property or other pecuniary interest held in the name of such member and/or as it relates to the obligations of such member to Oceanic.

So from thus Plea Bargain, it is very incorrect to say that Dele Oye is innocent or is not a criminal. There are legal authorities to the effect that a person compromised in a Plea Bargain Agreement over a criminal charge is a criminal. But would you even know that there are serious question marks about the total integrity of the PBA in question?

Pages 75 – 82 of the P.B.A contains list of “Agreed Assets To Be Forfeited and pages 83 – 94 of the P.B.A states “shares in unlisted companies”.

In none of these pages will you find a mention of Flotsome Investment Limited. This is one of the three companies created by Dele Oye suing other people’s names without their consent, to take out 22 billion naira from the Oceanic Bank. Flotsome investment is responsible for 7 billion of the total 22 billion naira.

So what happened to Flotsome and the 7 billion naira it purportedly took as loan? Why was Flotsome omitted out of the assets to be forfeited to the Federal Government? I am bothered about the reputation and integrity of the Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers. The Chairman of that Committee is enmeshed in a 6 billion naira fraud scandal at the National Judicial Institute while the Chief Prosecutor is involve in money laundering charges and compromised in a Plea Bargain.

I believe any normal and well-meaning lawyer and Nigerian must be bothered. How can people like Eri and Dele Oye, with such serious financial scandal/issues hanging over them be involved in the discipline of other legal practitioners?

As for the Chief justice of Nigeria writing me that my appointment as a member of the Disciplinary Committee has been terminated, I can only say that I have the highest regard for the high office he occupies now. I have sent a letter to him, in response to his letter and I wait, for him to do the right thing. 

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