NBA IKEJA ELECTIONS: FEAR GRIPS CANDIDATES

SQUIB COVER STORY

On 2nd June 2008, the NBA Ikeja branch, a.k.a Tigers branch, at its Annual General meeting, reconstituted her Electoral Committee, to organise elections into the Executive Council of the branch.

It would be recalled that the reconstitution became necessary upon the collapse of the original electoral committee headed by Taiwo Adeoluwa Esq.

Unlike its limpid predecessor, the new Electoral Committee headed by Mr. Layi Babatunde, S.A.N, with Miss Nike Onasanya as secretary and Femi Falana Esq. as member, is demonstrating her determination to get the task entrusted to her done satisfactorily.

On Thursday the 19th June 2008, after days of careful and deep perusal of screening records of the branch pertaining to candidates in the deform of attendance lists (in care of Mr. Beckley the General Secretary of the branch) and dues’ payment records (in charge of Mr. Yinka Faroubi Esq. the financial Secretary) the committee met with the contestants at about 4:00p.m.

The main purpose of the meeting was to conduct a public hearing of the petitions pending before the committee. At the end of the three hour long exercise, it became apparent that certainly not all the contestants would be allowed to participate in the election.

For example in the chairmanship level, the committee upon an examination of the records of attendance before them, declared that Dele Oloke did not meet up the required number of meetings per year which is 7. Oloke’s response was to launch into his traditional tirade against “the cabal which has been rigging in the branch”, advocating in the process that the bye-laws should be jettisoned for the purpose of the elections. The petition against Dave Ajetomobi Esq. written by Niyi Akinmola Esq., to the effect that Ajetomobi did not pay his 2006-2007 practising fees and only has a back –dated receipt to cover up for him was also considered.
When Ajetomobi denied the allegation against him, the committee called upon Yinka Faroubi, the financial secretary to clarity the position. Faroubi, much to the angst of the petitioner declared that Ajetomobi made valid payment and was validity issued a receipt.

Yet Akinmola would not give up. He demanded to see the stub of Ajetomobi’s receipt, but that examination could not be carried out since the Electoral Committee did not come with receipt booklets submitted to them by the financial secretary. The two rivals were asked to come back the next day to face the committee on the issue. On the return date Ajetomobi showed up before the committee but Akinmola did not.

The petition of Ajetomobi against Akinmola was also considered. Ajetomobi had accused Akinmola of having an unqualified member in the person of Biyi Oguntuga Esq as the seconder of his nomination.
According to Ajetomobi, Oguntuga only attended meetings of the branch between 2006 -2007 only two times. The examination of the attendance records in respect of Biyi Oguntuga drew attention to Beckley Abioye Esq another chairmanship aspirant but who is also the secretary for 2006 – 2008 years.

The committee found that while Abioye’s report on attendance credited Oguntuga with 9 sittings, the attendance register had him for 8, while the list of attendees of branch meetings published also by Abioye had him for only 2 times. Oguntuga’s in reaction to these discrepancies was to say that he was always coming late to meetings, reasons why his name was always at the bottom of the register, after it had been deemed close. When queried whether he ever complained at any of the meetings that his name was not adequately reflected on the published list of attendance Oguntuga said “no” because “ I never thought it necessary”.

Abioye’s defence was that he didn’t know how Oguntuga’s name got on the registers of the meetings. It was the same argument he put up later when he was queried over Abiola Oketoki, a social secretary aspirant whose name did not appear for once in the published attendance records for 2006 – 2007 year but whom the Abioye report astonishingly credited with 8 sittings. Interestingly, Oketoki defence or explanation to the curious situation was that she was always coming late to meeting; hence her name was also, always down the register after closure.

In the 1st Vice-President post, Oguntuga’s petition against Dare Akande Esq was treated. The allegation against the national leader of the Progressive Bar Forum was that he did not actually pay his branch dues for year 2006 – 2007 and that he was given a backdated receipt to cover him up.

This allegation was denied by Akande and his position was supported by Yinka Faroubi the financial secretary, who declared that Akande duly paid his branch dues.

In the 2nd Vice Chairman category, one of the three contestants, Mamuna Esegine, did not show up, so the petition of one of her rivals, Terry Badmus Adeniyi was not heard. The hearing was adjourned till the 20th June 2008, the next day. However, Esegine did not turn up also at the second date. The other contestant, Dafosta Osinowo did not argue with the committee’s finding that he did not have sufficient sittings, for year 2006- 2007 saying he was prepared to abide with their decision.

At the Secretary – Generalship levels, the hearing of the petition against Titi Osagie (Mrs) by her sole rival Isa Buhari that she did not pay adequate branch due brought out some heat from Osagie. Her claim that she duly paid her branch dues was backed by an affidavit sworn to in proof. But when the committee enquired from the financial secretary about the affidavit angle, Faroubi declared that Osagie did not pay to him and did not enquire from his office about the duplicate or stub of her missing receipt, before procuring an affidavit which according to him cannot stand for a certification of the document in question. Immediately the committee finished with her, Osagie walked out in annoyance.

When it came to the turn of the petition against S.O Omodara, whose opponent, Lateef Abdusalam accused of not having his branch dues, Omodara produced a receipt to the contrary.

However the receipt which bore a December 2006 date interesting came from a batch of March 2007 booklet. The financial secretary, Yinka Faroubi, denied issuing the receipt despite the fact that Farounbi’s signature was on the receipt. Farounbi explained that he left already signed booklet of receipt with the bar clerk so that payments can be made even in his absence as he was then engaged in his LLM programe, according to Farounbi such booklet were forcefully taken away from the bar clerk by the chairman and secretary of the branch without his knowledge or his authority. It was those documents that he alleged were tampered with including the one which included Omodara’s name.
The treatment of the petition against Miss Abiola Oketoki, social secretary contestant was also interesting. While Oketoki’s opponent, Emmanuel Otobo who came to the meeting armed with bundles of several papers and documents as if he was counsel to a party before the famous Oputa Panel, claimed that Oketoki did not pay her branch dues, Oketoki denied this but had no receipt to show for it. When she claimed that she made payment to the Bar Clerk, Miss Queen Ebohon, the committee summoned the clerk, who promptly denied Oketoki’s claim.

The petition against A. Ahmed contestant for the welfare secretary post was not treated for the absence of the petitioner, Chinwe Joy.
At the end of it all, the Electoral Committee hold the contestants that on Monday 23rd June 2008, she will put up their report on the qualification of candidates and by Wednesday the 25th June, the list of voters would be out. According to the committee they would give a few days to hear the complaints of any aggrieved voter with proof that his name is excluded from the voters list and make necessary adjustment.

From all indications then, the most likely time the long awaited Tiger Bar election will hold is Monday 30th June 2008.
Although nobody is sure which candidates will eventually be cleared for the election by the Electoral Committee, contestants who are either members or allies of the Niyi Idowu – Beckley Abioye group to wit:- Beckley Abioye, Biyi Oguntuga, Titi Osagie, Abiola Oketoki, S.O Omodara, Mamuna Esegine, appear to be feeling the heat more, probably because the bulk of ‘heavy’ petitions were directed against them or are otherwise affected in the on going scrutiny of qualifying records.

Just about press time, (Saturday 21-06-2008) credible, gecko-borne news reached the Squib that the Electoral Committee was at work in the office of her chairman, Layi Babatunde S.A.N. The committee met to give further opportunity to entertain Niyi Akinmola’s petition against Dave Ajetomobi. Both men were summoned likewise the financial secretary who however did not turn up.

Geckos were surprised, to hear Niyi Akinmola who maintained that he would not press his claim unless Faroubi was present, accuse two members of the Electoral Committee – the chairman himself, Layi Babatunde S.A.N and Femi Falana Esq. of acting out “the script of Dave Ajetomobi to get me (Akinmola) disqualified.”

According to our information, Niyi Akinmola was agitated, confrontational and rude but the Electoral Committee members with some effort kept their cool and adjourned the hearing of his petition to Sunday the 22nd June 2008 when Farounbi was expected to be available.
When contacted on the phone four times between 8.00pm and 8.20pm by the Squib on this development, Niyi Akinmola was not prepared to talk, aside asking this reporter whether he was a candidate or petitioner in the elections.

Surely, the drama of the 2008 NBA Ikeja branch elections has not ended.

LASTMA STAFF KILLS LAGOS COURT WORKER

SQUIB COVER STORY

Lateef Osho Jogunomi was a well known face in the sheriffs section of the Ikeja High Court. He was an auxiliary staff, one of the many signed on by the Lagos State Judiciary to act as assistants to sheriffs on execution duties.
On Friday the 6th June 2008, Jogunomi, said to be in his late forties and a father of five, left his house very early in the morning to carry out an eviction exercise with some of his colleagues in a suburb of Lagos but he was never to return to his house or the loving company of his family, for whom he was head and the main bread-winner. By 8:30a.m on this fateful Friday morning, the enforcers of court orders had successfully carried out their task and they dispersed to find their way back to their base – the Ikeja High Court. Jogunomi and only of member of his team, Aliyu Ajiwokeu kept company in the bid to get back to Ikeja. But neither of them reached that destination as an unexpected and unwanted tragedy visited them on the way and truncated their journey, ultimately taking Jogunomi on a journey of no return.
According to Aliyu Ajiwokeu, Jogunomi’s companion who witnessed how his colleague suddenly became a patient in a hospital’s emergency ward and later an occupier of a space in the morgue, put the blame for the unfortunate demise of Jogunomi squarely on the door steps of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA).
Said Ajiwokeu “We were coming from where we went for execution. When we got to Ketu we took a bus that would take us to Oshodi. We were approaching Oshodi Oke, when two LASTMA staff stopped our bus. The bus was passing in front of their Oshodi office that very time. When the driver stopped, the two LASTMA staff ordered all passengers to come down.
All of us were shocked, moreso as it was raining that time. We however came down and I was the one who led the other passengers to meet the two LASTMA staff to enquire from them why they had to order us down from the bus.
One of the LASTMA men was almost fully kitted out in his official uniform while the other was in mufti, Ankara dress specifically.
The two men were rude and hostile to us saying that they needed the bus for their operation. When we now said what about the fare we had paid to the driver, they shouted that that’s our problem and hat we should go away.
At that point one of the passengers when I later knew to be Taofeek told the LASTMA men that they were acting unfairly and oppressively and were abusing the privilege that they were uniformed men. For saying that Taofeek’s umbrella was taken from him and broken.
Suddenly the LASTMA man in mufti just pushed those of us standing together and we staggered back. Then he went to Jogunomi who never uttered a word and who was standing by himself and shoved him violently backwards.
Taking by surprise Jogunomi fell backward immediately, hitting his head on the road, right at the entrance of LASTMA office.
As he fell, his phone flew away from his hand and I rushed to pick it up, thinking, he Jogunomi would pick himself up, but he just lay there.
I saw the two LASTMA men ran into their office, after Taofeek unsuccessfully tried holding down the man who pushed Jogunomi to the ground. Taofeek joined me to chase them while the women amongst us started wailing that LASTMA has killed a person.
Once inside their vast compound, the two men disappeared but in the commotion, I heard some other LASTMA staffing referring to the escapes as Yomi and Yusuf. One DSP Sunday, a senior police officer who was there advised that it was better that we should abandon chasing for the two LASTMA men and look after my colleague and we did just that.
We lifted him from the ground and took him to their clinic in the compound and from there we took him to Gbagada General Hospital. He was in very bad shape, he couldn’t talk, blood was coming from his nose, yet he was struggling to stand up from the hospital bed and we had to hold him down. I contacted our office by phone and our superiors, particularly Magistrate Oguntade, the Director of the Department swung into action. That madam really tried. We heard she called the Chief Judge, and also the Governor and she came to join us at the hospital. At about 8:00p.m that evening I had to leave for my house. By the next morning, I heard that Jogunomi gave up about 1:00a.m in the morning.
We have reported the mater to the police at Mosafejo Police Station but I don’t know how far they have gone with their investigation, or whether the LASTMA men have been apprehend”
The Squib gathered it was only on Tuesday the 10th June that the remains of the late Jogunomi was interred, after an autopsy was conducted on his body. We also gathered that a sum of twenty five thousand naira was released by the Lagos State Judiciary authorities to Jogunomi’s family to aid in his burial ceremony.
The Squib’s efforts at meeting Magistrate Oguntade, the Director of the Sheriffs section twice on Jogunomi death in the past week was abortive. Although we met with Mr. Ogundare, the acting Chief Registrar of the Lagos State Judiciary, no enlightenment on the latest developments in the case emerged in that direction as the high level official maintained the age-long policy of wary official interaction and taciturnity with the Squib. According to the acting Chief Registrar, “There is no formal report from the Department concerned on the matter yet and so I would not want to say anything more than acknowledging the fact that someone died. To go beyond that is to be indulging in speculations.”
Observers believe that the death of auxiliary Sheriff Lateef Osho Jogunomi is one death that the Lagos State Judiciary, his employer should not allow to be swept under the carpet, for two important reasons: one to show that the Lagos Judiciary values and cares for all her staff, irrespective of their levels and status and two - to act as deterrence to other members of Lagos State Law enforcement agencies like LASTMA, Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) corpsmen etc who indulge in brutalising and humiliating members of the public in the name of carrying out their duties.
Meanwhile the Squib advises the family of late Jogunomi to take up civil claims against LASTMA in the court of law for the unlawful, wicked and reckless determination of their bread-winner’s life. The NBA Ikeja branch can be approached in this regard.

THE GREAT ASSIGNMENT

SQUIB COVER STORY

2nd June 2008 started as an ordinary day for Nike Onasanya, a young lady lawyer and member of the famous Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. The day however ended for her on an extra-ordinary note.

The young lawyer, like about eight hundred other members of the Tiger Bar came to the branch secretariat for the Annual General Meeting of the branch last Monday with the main aim of participating in the elections that would provide new executives for the branch but ended up becoming the secretary of the newly constituted Electoral Committee of the branch saddled with the responsibility of conducting the now postponed elections.

As secretary, Onasanya is walking and working with ‘giants’. The chairman of the reconstituted Electoral Committee is Mr. Layi Babatunde S.A.N, the publisher of the well known Supreme Court Reports, while the only other member is none other than Barrister Femi “Authority Falana, the famous human rights campaigner.

Very early in the day (June 2 2008) the portents indicated that the scheduled elections might not take place after-all. Quite unlike all previous Annual General Meetings, of June 2 2008 did not start in time. In fact the meeting was called to order around 2:40p.m, a hundred minutes after schedule.
The delay was inevitable. Niyi Idowu Esq. as well as Mr. Rex Onobrakpeya and Mr. Gbenga Akingbehin the surviving members of the Original Electoral Committee were at different times locked up with elders of the branch, on the best way to get out of the log-jam created by the disintegration of the Taiwo Adeoluwa Electoral Committee and which was not in any shape to conduct elections.

The Adeoluwa Electoral Committee in practical terms came to grief on 26th May 2008, when the Chairman of the Committee, unprecedentedly resigned from the Committee. As it turned out, the other two members (Onobrakpeya and Akingbehin) maintained sharply opposing views on what to do about the contestants. While Onobrakpeya cleared all the candidates on the ground that the records to be used for the screening was manifestly unreliable, Akingbehin relied on the same records to prescribe for the disqualification of close to 75% percent of the contestants.

The dilemma, the Ikeja branch of the NBA faced on June 2 2008 was what to do in the face of the contradictory positions of the self decapitated Taiwo Adeoluwa Electoral Committee.
The singular question was whether in the circumstances, it was proper hold her elections on June 2 2008. Ordinarily the resolution of this question would not have proved so knotty, if the leadership of the bar, specifically Niyi Idowu Esq, the out-going (out-gone?) chairman was disposed to having the elections rescheduled.

The gentle-man however was of a contrary disposition. In fact he was firmly committed to the position that willy-nilly the elections must hold on the June 2 2008.
Credible information reaching the Squib had it that despite meeting with the elders first on Friday the 30th May 2008 and on June 2 2008 before the A.G.M started, Idowu was still bent on seeing that elections took place on that day, even though he could not openly disagree with the elders, the clear majority of whom wanted the elections postponed for two weeks to allow for proper screening of the candidates to be conducted by a new electoral committee.
In the two weeks of the postponed elections, the Council of Elders, a body recognised under the constitution would take over from the Idowu administration.
Idowu was opposed to this proposition for two reasons:
The first one was personal – if his administration was succeeded by a care-taker committee, called by whatever appellation, it is a clear indication that his administration ended up in crisis, a situation if perceived to be a stain on his political record.
The second reason was political – if elections were postponed and a new electoral committee setup, with the mandate as the elders wanted it, to follow the bye-laws in the conduct of the elections, most, if not all of the candidates sponsored by Idowu stand very good chances of being disqualified as their opponents had raised strong petitions against them before the now defunct Adeoluwa Committee.
The conduct of the A.G.M by Idowu had no problems except a few hiccups in the one instance, where he and the General Secretary, Beckley Abioye in their reports were shockingly parsimonious with praises and acknowledgement due to the Lagos State Government which had given to the branch a brand new 32 sealer coaster bus.
This rather curious posture generated a negative reception from many members, because even the very devil it is said deserve his dues; not to talk of a benefactor of the branch like the Lagos State Government.

All the same at the end of his seven page speech, the traditional standing ovation was given to the chairman while the elders and leading lights of the branch moved to the high-table to congratulate Idowu for a “successful two year tenure” in office as chairman.
The next stage in the proceedings ordinarily was for the out-going executives to vacate the high- table for the Electoral Committee, which would set to the task of conducting elections immediately.
Unfortunately, there was no electoral committee to be called upon, for reasons earlier on stated in this report. Consequently, the chairman and the secretary retained their sets on the high-table.
The chairman proceeded to address the house and immediately showed that he had an agenda different from his agreement with the elders, to wit, to get the house to dissolve the decapitated Adeoluwa Committee, set up a new electoral committee, set up a care-taker committee and fix a date for the elections (not later than two or three weeks).

In his speech, the chairman gave a sharply edited version of the condition of the Taiwo Adeoluwa committee. According to Idowu, all what the Adeoluwa committee had done was to forward to him two proposals as regard the elections for two weeks or to conduct the election on June 2 2008 with all the contestants being allowed to vie, courtesy of a jettisoning of the branch’s bye-laws.

Idowu, clearly for reasons best known to him, refused to inform the house that the committee chairman, Taiwo Adeoluwa had resigned his appointment and that the other two members were not in agreement on how to go about the conduct of the elections.

Even before he finished his speech, the elders realised that Idowu had departed from their agreement and swiftly though their leader, Chief V.A Odunaiya, tried to get the meeting onto the course of their preference - postponed elections and conformity with the branch’s bye-laws in conduct of the elections.

Chief Odunaiya however had only the floor for a few minutes before hecklers started to interject him. Chief Odunaiya’s interjectors’ main cry was that they wanted the elections “now!” About two hours before then, the Niyi Idowu – Beckley Abioye group had circulated many copies of the report of the 2002 Electoral Committee of the NBA Ikeja, headed by Chief V.A Odunaiya to member present. The purpose was to show that six years ago, the Ikeja bar actually suspended her bye-laws in the screening of all candidates for that year’s election and allowed all contestants to vie.

Unfortunately for the vendors of the Odunaiya Electoral Committee Report, many people saw it as inappropriate comparison with the 2008 situation and a cheap blackmail of Chief V.A Odunaiya.
In the confused atmosphere that the lingering hot debates whether the election should hold that day or not, it was clear that to all discerning minds that for reasons of the obvious division of the Adeoluwa Electoral Committee, absence of Election materials and the passage of time, (it was already 4:30p.m in the evening) that the elections could not hold, yet the Niyi Idowu – Beckley Abioye group supported by their junior political partners, the slight camp of Niyi Akinmola continued to shout that the elections must hold.

But at the end of the day all the cacophonous exertions of the “Elections Today, Today” hawks came to naught. Their resolve to continue with their agitations broke when Dele Adesina S.A.N, took the floor. The silk wove logic round oration to convince the agitators that the only reasonable path to take in the circumstances was to disband the Adeoluwa Committee, set up a new one and postpone the elections. Adesina made an unimpeachable distinction between the Electoral situation of the bar in 2002 and the present situation; to the effect that while the 2008 Electoral Committee was in shambles and presented two conflicting reports, the 2002 Electoral Committee of Chief V.A Odunaiya was not only united and presented a single report, it actually screened candidates and only requested for the permission of the full house that the result of the screening exercise be not followed, to allow elections into all the offices. There was also no allegation of doctoring of qualification records in 2002, unlike 2008.
When the house accepted the Dele Adesina reasoning, the next task dissolving - the Adeoluwa Committee was quickly done. But setting up a new Electoral Committee proved not that easy. The problem was that Idowu wanted to control the nomination of the members of the Electoral Committee.
This move was stoutly resisted by Idowu’s opponents. At the end of the day, eight nominators were recognised; who each called out their nominees out of which only three were chosen by the house.

The first nominee was Mr. Layi Babatunde S.A.N and his nominator was Adesina Ogunlana. It was an impeccable nomination. Everybody automatically knew that Babatunde S.A.N with his huge reputation for legality and thoroughness will not make the Committee but become the chairman on account of his seniority.

Later when Femi Falana was also nominated by another person, it was also clear that Falana would make the committee. And so it was. The third member of the new committee was Nike Onasanya, the only lady among the eight nominees, and who was more or less unilaterally made the secretary of the committee by Dele Adesina S.A.N who told the house to accept her as member and secretary. And so it was.

Not long after the constitution of the Layi Babatunde (SAN) Electoral Committee, the meeting came to an end, but the Niyi Idowu Executive Committee was not dissolved. The AGM was adjourned for two weeks and for the elections to hold then.

From all indications, the Layi Babatunde (SAN) Electoral Committee is poised to use the Bye-Laws in the conduct of the elections and it has started working already.
In a statement dated 4th June 2008, the committee expressed its desire to do a thorough job and solicited the support of all members of the branch, including the candidates, in the discharge of their duties. Please see cover story exhibit.

Given the bitter wrangling and deep suspicions that have attended the issue of elections in the Tiger Bar, the past six weeks, the Layi Babatunde (SAN) Electoral Committee will need all the good luck and goodwill it can muster to succeed in their task more so as some candidates, fearing disqualification have been heard muttering in some quarters that:
“We will not allow the elections to take place
if any candidate is disqualified from the elections
by the Electoral Committee.”

ELECTIONS! ELECTIONS!! ELECTIONS!!! BUT WILL IT HOLD?

On Monday, June 2 2008, the ‘Bar Centre’ Secretariat of the Nigerian bar Association Ikeja branch will become a Mecca to hundreds of Nigerian lawyers in the afternoon of the day.

The ‘pilgrims’, members of the most radical and certainly the foremost branch of the Bar Association would be coming to their secretariat with one major purpose in their mind-to-participate in the general elections of the famous branch scheduled to hold on that day.

It is also a day that the Niyi Idowu led administration of the Ikeja bar would be vacating the seat of power, to join the growing tribe of past leaders of the Tigers’ Bar.

One of the questions uppermost in the minds of many Tigers now, is “who will be the next chairman of the Tiger Bar?” However, there is even a question of a more urgent dynamics-will the Elections itself hold?

In ordinary times, the latter question would have been unthinkable and quite preposterous to voice out. But these are not ordinary times with the Tiger Bar. As at press time, it can be fairly argued that the body the Tiger Branch has saddled with the conduct of the election is not prepared, or at least is not in a good shape to carry out the exercise.

It would be recalled that about three weeks ago, that the Squib had predicted that going by the contradictory tendencies in the 3 - man Electoral Committee, the Committee may split.

This exactly has happened. The Electoral Committee formerly headed by Taiwo Adeoluwa Esq has not only split but worse, disintegrated.
The first visible sign that the Electoral Committee was in serious trouble was when the chairman, Adeoluwa Esq, surreptitiously, without prior notice to his members, forwarded his letter of resignation from the Committee to the chairman of the branch, Niyi Idowu Esq, on the 26th May, 2008.

Adeoluwa’s action caught the other two members of the E.C (Rex Onobrakpaya Esq. and Gbenga Akingbehin Esq.) napping. Three days before 26th May, 2008, all the three men had jointly signed an interim report on the candidates where they made a sweeping declaration that the Committee had enough materials to disqualify all the candidates in the election (20 in all). This position was considered provocative and unjustifiable by some candidates, who went ahead to formally put down their objection on paper (See Cover Story Exhibit).

In his letter of resignation, which was void of any reason for the withdrawal from duty, Adeoluwa stated that he had handed over all properties of the branch in his custody to the care of the most senior member of the Committee” to wit: Rex Onobrakpeya.

Interestingly, Onobrakpeya interpreted the resignation of Adeoluwa Esq. from the membership of the Electoral Committee and the handing over to him of materials to mean that he automatically became the chairman of the Electoral Committee. He apparently did not avert his mind to the fact that under the Bye-Laws of the Ikeja Bar, a valid Electoral Committee must comprise of three members.

Without further ado, Onobrakpeya assumed the office of the chairman of the E.C and promptly set to work, taking very important but as event would later show, unilateral decisions, on behalf of the new “amputated” Electoral Committee which only comprised of himself and Gbenga Akingbehin.

Working very swiftly indeed, Onobrakpeya on the 26th May, 2008 the very day that Adeoluwa resigned, caused to be posted on the notice board of the Ikeja Bar Secretariat, a document, wherein he cleared all the contestants for the elections on the basis that “after due consultation with all interested parties, we are of the opinion that it will be morally wrong and reprehensible to exclude any one based on the records placed before us to conduct this elections as the records are manifestly unreliable.” (see cover story exhibit).

The Rex Onobrakpeya report excited certain contestants particularly those who were battling with eligibility, while it disturbed those contestants and their supporters who had no eligibility challenges.

On Tuesday 27th May, 2008, the self-appointed chairman of the Electoral Committee was sighted at the Bar Centre clutching some bags and files. He was seen, using his phones to summon all the candidates to a meeting with the E.C. But before the meeting could start, ‘chairman’ Onobrakpeya was openly challenged by Adesina Ogunlana Esq., a PBF chieftain as to the propriety of the Onobrakpeya report which Ogunlana claimed was unilateral and mischievous, a creation of Onobrakpeya to satisfy certain political interests. According to Ogunlana, Ononbrakpeya by his action had become a politician and would be treated as a political opponent by those opposed to his partisan position.

The confrontation even became more heated when Rex Onobrakpeya called upon an on-looker, a man he described as his bodyguard to come and protect him. The ‘body-guard’ however remained wisely quiescent and the storm blew over.

In the event, the meeting of the amputated Electoral Committee with candidates never took place again. This was because, when Mr. Gbenga Akingbehin, the secretary of the E.C showed up some ninety minutes later, he and Onobrakpeya disagreed on the report Onobrakpeya had put up. Akingbehin was heard by many people telling Onobrakpeya that he was not aware of his (Onobrakpeya’s) report and that Onobrakpeya was unfair to him.

On Wednesday, the 28th of May, 2008, Yinka Farounbi Esq. the financial secretary of the association put up the list of financial members of the Ikeja Bar for year 2007/2008, which in effect is the list of those eligible to vote in the June elections. The presence of the “Voters List” re-kindled hope in the hearts of watchers of the Ikeja Bar political scene that the elections would take place on June 2, 2008. But, on Friday 30th May, 2008, that hope suddenly vaporised, courtesy of an 11 page report posted up the notice board by Gbenga Akingbehin Esq.

The Akingbehin Report was not only a blistering denounciation of the Onobrakpeya Report, it was a radical departure from the direction of the Onobrakpeya Report in that it presented strong basis for the exclusion of some contestants from the race, including all but one of the candidates for chairman. The only chairmanship candidates who survived the Akingbehin axe is Dave Ajetomobi Esq. (Please see cover story exhibit.)
The Akingbehin report needless to say was sharply unpalatable to most of those it negatively affected.

Geckos told the Squib, that the Akingbehin Report sent the Niyi Idowu - Beckley Abioye group into a deep valley of anxiety and depression as virtually all the candidates of the group with the possible exception of S.O Omodara, publicity secretary aspirant, faced the dire threat of disqualification. For example Beckley Abioye, Chairmanship candidate was held disqualifiable for lack of moral integrity, Titi Osagie Secretaryship candidate was held disqualifiable for inadequate payment of branch dues, Charles Biyi Oguntuga 1st Vice Chairmanship candidate was held disqualifiable for insufficient attendance of branch meetings, A. Ahmed Welfare Secretaryship candidate was held disqualifiable for the possible ineligibility of his seconder, Biyi Oguntuga. Maimuna Esegine 2nd Vice - Chairmanship candidate was held disqualifiable for the possible ineligibility of her nominator A. Ahmed and for alleged insufficient attendance of branch meetings.

Abiola Oketoki Social Secretaryship candidate was held disqualifiable for alleged insufficient attendance of branch meetings.
As things stand, there are two reports emanating from the “headless” Electoral Committee, and sharply contradictory too. The obvious implication of this is that the Electoral Committee, if it can still be called that, is in disarray and as such is not fit to conduct the elections which going the length of the voters’ list holds the strong promise of attracting an unprecedented number of about a thousand strong voters.

Credible news reaching the Squib has it that some concerned elders of the branch are working hard behind the scenes to see that the succession crisis in the bar will not degenerate into the state of consuming the famous Tiger Bar. The maturity and sagacity of the elders on how to contain the situation will certainly be put to the test at the June 2 2008 meeting of the Tigers.

Inspite of the dark clouds on the horizon, there are still few optimists who believe that the Tigers will overcome their problems and hold a successful election come June 2, 2008, to usher in, new leaders of the Tiger Bar.
In the eventuality of such a proposition, the question: who becomes the “chief servant” of the Tigers becomes relevant. From the investigations and interactions of this magazine, Dave Ajetomobi Esq., remains, till date, the candidate most likely to emerge as the new chairman of the Tigers. It appears, that, thanks to the support of certain key associates and loyalists, all grass roots bar politicians, Ajetomobi enjoys a wide spread support base among members of the branch.

The immense goodwill of his associates has clearly rubbed off Ajetomobi’s image. Backed by a highly mobile political machine, Ajetomobi, appears also to be the most personally improved chairmanship candidate, in terms of dress sense, carriage and comportment. While some of his rivals have lost their shine to the stress and toils of the campaigns, Ajetomobi conversely looks more and more burnished by the day and looking the part of a chairman already.

The formidability of his candidacy is revealed by the fact that unlike his rivals, whose campaign strength waned considerably in reaction to the constant uncertainties plaguing the electoral process. Ajemotobi’s campaign team is even working beyond full throttle the nearer June 2, 2008 looms.

In addition, he is a direct beneficiary of the recent political woes of Beckley Abioye, his nearest rival. Since about ten days ago, Abioye has been facing serious integrity challenges as all the three reports of the Electoral Committees, differing as they were, unanimously indicted Abioye, either directly or indirectly as being involved in the forgery of documents, specifically the doctoring of attendance registers of the Ikeja Bar in favour of certain candidates.

In the Interim Report of the Electoral Committee and signed by all the three members, the Committee had this to say of Beckley Abioye.
“The meeting attendance Records and minutes of meetings submitted by the General Secretary have been MANIPULATED in material particulars and DOCTORED in several respects and substantially unreliable for the purposes of our assignment.” (capital Squib’s). “For instance at the open meeting of Wednesday the 14th May 2008, the discrepancies between the actual meeting attendance records and the official minutes were brought to the attention of the General Secretary, he not only admitted the irregularities but also counseled the committee not to rely records submitted to us by his office”.

To make matters worse for Abioye, the allegation of doctoring and manipulation of financial records of the branch was also laid on his door-step by Yinka Farounbi the financial secretary who informed the Adeoluwa Electoral Committee (as it then was) that it was Abioye as General Secretary and Niyi Idowu the chairman who seized the financial records from his custody and tampered with them.

The consequence of all these credible allegations of fraudulent tampering with documents against Abioye is that it has seriously lowered his reputation in the minds of many right thinking members of the association, who no longer consider him a fit and proper person to lead the bar. One aggrieved member told the Squib that “one man who should not be allowed to participate in the election is Beckley Abioye. Even if everybody else is allowed to contest, Abioye should be disallowed. The electoral committee said that they could not rely on the records presented by the man to screen candidates because the records have been tampered with and doctored. Abioye, from the facts at hand is heavily involved in the dirty act, so why should such a person be given the opportunity to lead the bar? As secretary General he has been proved to be a forger you can be sure that if he becomes chairman he will steal the bar blind. In fact the appropriate political sanction against Abioye is to ban him for life from holding any office again in the NBA”.

Invariably in the last one week, the embattled Beckely Abioye has lost a lot of grounds making his challenge to Ajetomobi’s lead considerably weaker.

As for the duo of Niyi Akinmola Esq. and Dele Oloke Esq, even if cleared to run in the elections, their chances of success do not appear too bright. Both have no visible and viable political machinery behind them, relying essentially therefore on the weight of their individual influence and clout to get the top job. This is very doubtful because neither of the duo has enough personal influence to match, not to talk of over whelming the widespread good will the leading candidate Dave Ajetomobi enjoys, courtesy of his group’s extensive networks.

In all the uncertainties of the electoral process and dynamics, and the consequent anxiety two things are however certain, June 2 2008 will come and go, the Heavens will not fall and the Tiger Bar will still remain.