HOW DAVE AJETOMOBI BECAME NBA IKEJA LEADER

It was a battle of wits, a test of might, a clash of wills, a conflict of beliefs, a display of skills, a fierce struggle between erstwhile brothers and comrades a thought provoking determination of who “owns papa's land.” It was ultimately democracy in action. And the people spoke loud and clear was the message, and it was as follows:
(a) People make leaders and not the other way round
(b) A tree does not make a forest
(c) king-makers are bigger than kings, even though kings may appear more prominent than their makers
(d) There will always be a day of reckoning for every deed, good or bad.
(e) A river that spurns its source will soon dry-up
(f) Pride goes before a fall

When Tigers, members of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja gathered at the Onyx Plaza, I Sobo Arobiodu Close G.R.A Ikeja, Lagos on 30th June 2008, it was not for a party. It was for the very serious business of choosing whom their prime leaders, Chairman and General Secretary for the next two years would be. A week before then, some of their other new leaders in persons of Dare Akande Esq. (1st Vice Chairman) Terry Adeniji Badmus (2nd Vice Chairman) Leye Omitola (Financial Secretary) Lateef Abdusalam (Publicity Secretary) and Emmanuel Otobo (Social Secretary) had been known. The vice-chairmen, the publicity secretary and the social secretary had rode into office on the back of the disqualification of their respective opponents by the Layi Babatunde (S.A.N) Electoral Committee, while the financial secretary had no opponent. The Electoral Committee had also declared the posts of Welfare Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant General Secretary, vacant following the earlier disqualification of all the contestants in the posts.

In the contest for chairman, were only two candidates, Dave Ajetomobi 1st Vice-Chairman in the Niyi Idowu administration and Beckley Abioye the General Secretary in the same administration. They would have been four but the disqualification axe of the Electoral Committee had struck down the ambition of Niyi Akinmola Esq. and Dele Oloke, who were the other aspirants.

In the contest for General Secretary, there were only two candidates too - Isa Mohammed Buhari and Titilayo Osagie, Mrs.
Last week, in our volume 8 No 32 edition (re-printed in this edition) the Squib had predicted that Dave Ajetomobi and Isa Mohammed Buhari had the greater chances of wining the contests.

The prediction did not fail. Buhari coasted to victory with about 59% of the total votes cast to wit 212 votes to Titi Osagie's 149 votes. To become the chairman, Ajetomobi took 60% (221) of the votes leaving Beckley Abioye gasping with the remainder 40% (138 votes)
It was in the eyes of many observers, a fitting end to the unreasonable, even obnoxious and reckless ambitions of Niyi Idowu, the immediate past chairman of the branch, to single handedly install his successor in office. In pursuit of his interesting project, Idowu found a willing ally and tool in Beckley Abioye, who had tasted the sweet but heady wine of power in the office of the General Secretary of the famous Ikeja bar.

It was a long term project but destined to crash land eventually. It may never he fully understood why Idowu decided to go on his dismal one man mission of installing his successor but there are enough indications to suggest his decision was based nothing more than a hitherto hidden bitterness and resentment of some members of his former political caucus like Adekunle Ojo and Adesina Ogunlana whom he felt were waxing too strong in the political firmament of NBA Ikeja politics.

Another strong but clear impetus for this action was his exaggerated opinion about his popularity, influence and mastery of the strategies and tactics of political warfare and conquest combined with a lack of healthy respect for the capacities of all his former “comrades at arms” in the caucus.

What fuelled this strange delusion in the former chairman of the NBA was nothing more than his all too easy elections victories over Dele Oloke, first in 2004 to become the 1st vice chairman of the Tigers and then secondly in 2006 to become the chairman. Idowu, forgot however that Oloke was actually not a formidable opponent, worthy enough to match, talk-less of beating the group that produced him (Idowu) and which has had a hegemonistic hold on the politics of the Ikeja bar, possibly for the 'interregnum' of the Bisi Ade-Ademuwagun chairmanship (2000-2004) for more than a decade now.

The final stimulant that obviously goaded Idowu into rebellion and consequent betrayal of his group was the prominence that both he and his adopted political son Beckley Abioye enjoyed courtesy of their top positions as chairman and secretary of the Tiger branch between 2006and 2008. Both believed that the power of incumbency they enjoyed would certainly be of good help to their cause.

The definite start of the Beckley Abioye for chairman programme took place around August 2007 but it was kept under wraps, although Idowu even then was heard by some geckos boasting in some quarters that “I will show those people in the next election”
Almost from the on-set however, the plot to make Abioye, Idowu's successor started to fail, with the refusal of Yinka Farounbi, a senior member of the caucus and a key executive office holder to join on. Farounbi's demurral ought to have warned the duo of Idowu and Abioye off their scheme, particularly Abioye since, he Faroubi was Abioye's sponsor into the influential power caucus. Farounbi was of the firm opinion that Ajetomobi who was senior in all political respects, in the caucus, in the NBA, and at the bar, to Abioye, who was actually the most junior in the caucus, should be Idowu's successor.

Faroubi's reasonable stance and wise counsel was however ignored by Idowu and Abioye who continued to push on with their plans. Still it was not ripe for them to show their hands clearly to the caucus, led by Dare Akande Esq, the newly elected 1st vice-chairman of the NBA.

But it was not only Idowu and Abioye who would rebel against the obvious choice of the caucus for the chairmanship of the Ikeja bar, after Idowu, to wit Dave Ajetomobi. Another rebel was Niyi Akinmola Esq, the immediate past second vice-chairman of the branch and a foundation member of the caucus. Instead of waiting for his turn to get promoted by the caucus as per her tradition, Akinmola, fearing that he might be out-ranked later, decided to take his fate in his hands. He too approached Farounbi for support but again that worthy refused, insisting on following the tradition of the caucus in preferring the senior to the junior except in special circumstances.

Interestingly, Farounbi was no fan of Ajetomobi, infamous in the past for late coming and his temper which suddenly can become volatile. Thus in refusing to participate in the plot to outrank Ajetomobi, Farounbi only acted in good faith and on principle. He later played a major role in debunking the accusation of Niyi Akinmola against Ajetomobi before the Electoral Committee that Ajetomobi contrary to the bye-laws did not pay his branch dues for 2006-2007 year and thus saved Ajetomobi's candidacy.

By January 2008, the stage for open manifestation of their rebellions intentions against their political family was getting very set by Niyi Idowu, Beckley Abioye and Niyi Akinmola. Both Abioye and Akinmola had declared their interest in the chairmanship and could not be persuaded by the caucus to step down for Ajetomobi the most senior in the cadre.

After a long wait to resolve the matter one way or the other, in the face of the intransigence of the Abioye and Akinmola, the caucus finally in February 2008 settled for Ajetomobi as her flag-bearer. Neither of Abioye or Akinmola made themselves available for the caucus election. Idowu also refused to participate falsely claiming that as the chairman of the branch, he wanted to be neutral.

The overwhelming preference of the majority of the caucus for Dave Ajetomobi, did nothing to impress Abioye and Akinmola to drop their ambition. Abioye in particular pointedly told the leader of the caucus, Dare Akande, who delivered the verdict of the caucus to him that for all he cared, the caucus could go and jump with her decision.

Both men, Akinmola and Abioye used different methods in trying to actualise their dreams. While Akinmola went solo, relying essentially on the strength of his assumed popularity and personal intense campaigns, Idowu and Abioye decided to wage the coming battle with a structure behind them.

Both methods failed ultimately in the face of the opposition of the political machine of their erstwhile political family who turned the heat full blast on them.
The first to fall was Niyi Akinmola courtesy of a powerful one-punch-do-it-all petition from Dave Ajetomobi who complained that Akinmola's nomination seconder, Biyi Oguntuga Esq lacked the competence to do so for lack of inadequate attendance of branch meetings. The complaint was sustained and Akinmola joined Dele Oloke in the league of disqualified chairmanship candidates in the elections.

Getting Beckley Abioye and his mentor, Idowu to drink the gall of political defeat took the caucus a longer time. The duo had planned to use their advantage of incumbency to form an Electoral that would be sympathetic to their cause and the cause of their motley crowd of hastily arranged team of contestants to wit S.O Omodara, Abiola Oketoki, Maimuna Esegine, Biyi Oguntuga and A Ahmed, and allow them to contest the election irrespective of any qualification deficiencies they had. Again the caucus proved its mettle against Idowu and Abioye, by bullying their interests (that due process and legality be observed in the conduct of the elections) into the two Electoral Committees set up by the branch, this, despite the fact that Niyi Idowu, the self glorifying master political strategist presided over the meetings which produced the Electoral Committees.

The beginning of the end of the Abioye -for-chairman project became more manifest when the caucus' influence first prevented the allowance of every Tom Dick and Harry in the race to contest, and secondly when the influence ensured that in conformity with the bye-laws of the branch, most of the unqualified candidates were dropped from the race by the Electoral Committee. In the event, every body in the Idowu Abioye team of contestants except Abioye himself and Titi Osagie was disqualified from the race, while all the main candidates fielded by that obviously better prepared caucus scaled through .

Inspite of all these set-banks, the Idowu-Abioye group, with her now limping rag-tag army of adventures still believed that, if only they could soldier on, they would still defeat the Dare Akande led caucus. So the struggle continued, but it was clear to any wide-eyed observer that the Abioye-for-chairman 2008 would eventually collapse like a house built with spittle.

Commenting on the situation, this is how commentator described it
“It is like when you have a mighty bull surrounded by a pride of lions. Despite his might the lions would certainly overcome him. It is only Idowu standing with and for Beckley Abioye, how could he hope to win? Yes he is the chairman but he cannot single-handedly defeat his comrades, who know him in and out and who themselves are no push-overs.”

Led by the veteran campaigner Dare Akande Esq, the caucus simply turned the screws tighter by the day against the jugular of their opponents. The caucus called out all her generals, even from far flung places to come back home to Tiger land and join hands to teach “traitors and ingrates” a bitter but vital lessons that a part no matter how big is not greater than the whole.

The caucus knew it was fighting the bitterest war of her life ever because this was one war between brothers and threw everything they had into it. There job was made easier however by the avoidable mistakes made by the rebels Idowu and Abioye to wit:-
(a) fielding too many numbers of candidates
(b) antagonising and contributing to the frustration of the NBA presidential campaign of a prominent Tiger, Dele Adesina S.A.N
(c) getting enmeshed in the scandal of the falsification of branch records
(d) scorning media publication opportunity via the SQUIB publication
Perhaps one of the greatest assist the caucus received from their opponents came from Beckley
Abioye himself. The former general secretary was simply a hard sell. Younger than his opponent in real life and at the bar, Abioye, simply did not cut a 'presidential' look and could not put his good looks to a charismatic advantage. Rather for most part of the campaign he looked harassed and under stress in real life and almost pathetic or at best somber in pictures.

Of course, once the story was out that he betrayed the nomination norms of his caucus who brought him to power, Abioye and his political leader laboured constantly under the strains of being labeled “greedy, over-ambitions politicians.”

On July 1 2008, the caucus showed its might in no uncertain manner. Even before the commencement of the voting. It was clear that Ajetomobi and Buhari were the preferred team of majority of the Tigers’present. By the time voting was stopped more and more supporters of the Ajetomobi Buhari kept coming but the door was barred against them.
When the sorting and counting of the votes began in the voting hall there was not much tension in the groups loyal to the Caucus. The air was thick with the fragrance of their imminent victory. On the other hand the clearly embattled Niyi Idowu and one or two supporters of his sat glumly at the back of the hale awaiting the announcement of the death of his pet-project.

Suddenly leaders of the caucus leapt up and started congratulating themselves. Two of them in particular, Adekunle Ojo and Adesina Ogunlana started executing curious dance-steps, to the amusement and admiration of their supporters. When Ogunlana was asked why he was acting so excited he gleefully declared that he was undergoing ‘political ejaculation’. The Caucus had won again and her chieftains were only dancing on the political coffins of those who had so arrogantly underrated them.After the official announcement of the results, the Caucus led no less than a hundred supporters to a 'watering hole' at the P.O.W.A market near the Ikeja High Court to celebrate their all important victory. Many were the tears of Bacchus in that gathering!

WHO BECOMES THE NEXT CHAIRMAN OF THE IKEJA BAR?

SQUIB COVER STORY

For some weeks now, these two names, Dave Ajetomobi and Beckley Abioye have become very familiar to many members of the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. This, is only natural. The two names belong to contestants in the race for the prime leadership position of the branch.

Until Tuesday the 24th June 2008, the two men were not only the ones jostling to become the top gun in the Tiger bar. There were two others – Niyi Akinmola Esq. and Dele Oloke Esq. As things turned out however, both Akinmola and Oloke, came to political grief, when the re-constituted Electoral Committee of the Tiger bar, led by Mr. Layi Babatunde S.A.N, decided against their participation in the contest.

Oloke’s ‘sin’ was that he paid his branch dues out of time, while the albatross that dragged Akinmola’s flight into the miry depths, was the incompetence of Biyi Oguntuga Esq. the seconder of his nomination to so do. Oguntuga a contestant himself in the 1st Vice Chairmanship slot was disqualified for inadequate attendance of the branch’s meetings.

The exit of Oloke and Akinmola from the race has narrowed the field, but it is doubtful whether it made the contest any Lless keener. From perceptions opened to the Squib, even before the pruning down of the candidates (incidentally conforming to the norm of the branch to have only two contestants for the post of chairman) it appeared that the leading candidate was Dave Ajetomobi. Unlike his rivals who all had bands of passionate supporters, Ajetomobi appeared to have a loose and wide support base, loyal to his cause, not because of him alone, but by their connections to certain key members of his campaign team. From all indications, at least up to press time, the equation does not appear to have changed; meaning that barring any miracle or disaster, Ajetomobi will clinch the chairmanship.

One major drawback for Beckley Abioye’s candidacy is that he is the only chairmanship candidate with a moral burden issue on his laps, this, courtesy of his central role in the crisis generated over the issue of falsification of attendance of meetings records in favour of some candidates. It was the problem that led to the collapse of the first electoral committee and ultimately caused the postponement of the election from June 2 to June 30 2008.

In the renewed heat of the scandal and to survive before the reconstituted Electoral Committee, Abioye was forced to distance himself from his political comrades like Biyi Oguntuga Abiola Oketoki etc who had benefited from the monkeying with the attendance records, by claiming ignorance of how their names constantly got into the attendance registers after he had officially closed them. To the contrary, before the first Electoral Committee led by Taiwo Adeoluwa Esq., Abioye’s position then was to defend his crooked report, where he unfairly upgraded selected candidates and pooh-phoning the counter-proofs, in the form of the published lists of attendance issued by his office (General Secretary) saying “I don’t know where they (opponents) got all these from.”

Quite a number of the branch members felt disgusted about Abioye’s involvement in the mess and some have expressed surprise not only at his continued participation in the race; the-man-ought-to have resigned – if he has any shame they say, but also at his clearance by the Layi Babatunde S.A.N Electoral Committee.

Opined a commentator on the matter
“There is no real reason for the Layi Babatunde Committee to spare Abioye. He is clearly involved in the falsification of the attendance records. I guess they just allowed him so that it can be said that there is a semblance of contest in the chairmanship position.”

Another factor working actively against Abioye’s success is the thinness of the ground of his political sponsorship. He has only one main backer, Niyi Idowu Esq. the out-going chairman whose current popularity is debatable considering the fact that his tenure has wounded down in a vortex of controversy. As the leader of the branch, Idowu fumbled in the handling of the NBA presidential aspiration of Dele Adesina S.A.N a prominent and distinguished member and ex-chairman of the branch and almost got his fingers burnt in the process. To stretch his support base even thinner, Abioye’s group lost a good number of her members contesting for sundry posts in the executive committee to wit, Biyi Oguntuga (V.P) S.O Omodara, (P.R.O) Biola Oketoki (social secretary) and Maimuna Esegine (2nd Vice – chairman and A. Ahmed (welfare) to the disqualification axe of the electoral committee. On the contrast, the Dave Ajetomobi group lost none of her key members, with the implication now that, even if Abioye wins the election, he and possibly his preferred secretary Titi Osagie (if that worthy also wins) will be a tiny minority in the very cabinet he heads, a failure inducing arrangement indeed.

In addition the disqualification of most of the contesting members of his team, has left Abioye’s political machine seriously weakened, as almost all those disqualified in his camp have vanished from the political arena leaving only Abioye and Titi Osagie, with the occasional physical support of Niyi Idowu to soldier on.

On the other hand, the Ajetomobi camp continued to wax stronger by the day. Unlike her opponents, who had been overtaken by the inertia induced by the postponement of the June 2 2008 election, the Ajetomobi group remained vigorous, keeping the electorate aware of the developments in the race by constant, physical and media campaigns.

Field interactions and investigations of the Squib show that, Abioye’s chances would have been considerably helped assuming he could gain the supporters of Dele Oloke and Niyi Akinmola. However, there is little hope of such “acquisition” holding as the supporters in question are not to keen in pitching their tent with Abioye. While some of then even prefer to vote for Dave Ajetomobi as the lesser of the two evils, others are determined not to cast their votes at all as a protest sign against the disqualification of their candidates.

In spite of all the odds stacked against him however, Beckley Abioye may defy logic and win the elections. Upsets are not unknown in politics, which like the game of soccer does not operate along the exact and sure lines of mathematics. On the surface, more people appear to look Ajetomobi’s way but the face oft times is not a sure-fire indicator of a person’s mind set. In fact faces are famous for being deployed as masks of the feelings of the wearers.

There have been complaints in some quarters about candidate Dave Ajetomobi, about his perceived quietness, even shyness and lack of spontaneous warmth with non-acquaintances, raising doubts about his accessibility and assertiveness. Observers are quick however to consider such criticisms as not strong enough to cost Ajetomobi the chair of the Ikeja bar, for being misconceived in the light of the fact, that Ajetomobi is well known in the Ikeja bar as a good master of ceremony. “If the man is such an introvert as his critics say, how come he does well as a master of ceremony” queried an Ajetomobi supporter who went to opine further that:
“Those who say Ajetomobi is not a good mixer are having wrong impressions about his style as a person and a politician. I think it is even a good thing for a person to be quiet and gentle. Gentility does not mean shyness or weakness or cowardice. The man is just humble and respectful.”

The only other post in contention, that of the General Secretary, is again between only two candidates, Isa Mohammed Buhari Esq. and Titi Osagie (Mrs) While Buhari a Muslim and a Northerner, called to the bar in 1990 is in Ajetomobi’s camp, Osagie, a Christian, South Westerner, matrimonially connected to Edo State and called to the bar in 2000 is in Abioye’s camp. Both of them bring different political gains to their principals. Buhari’s post 18 years call at the bar, give him a solid seniority edge over Osagie’s post 8 year call. In addition to the fact that he is a not a Yoruba, (though he can ‘blow’ the Oduduwa tongue more than some Ile- Ife parrots) signals that his sponsors, is indeed progressive, caring for merit above any other considerations including ethnicity.

The same argument of progressiveness however can be made for the presentation of Osagie for the post of secretary, considering her gender, which is female. No woman has ever served as the secretary of the Ikeja bar before now. The most singular draw back however to Osagie’s candidacy, apart from being a member of the Niyi Idowu -Beckley Abioye team is her sheer ‘juniority’ which many voters seem to find difficult to swallow considering the importance of the post of General Secretary she is contesting, more so as the candidate has had only about two years of fair participation (non-executive) in Ikeja bar affairs starting under the Niyi –Idowu regime and is not known to many members.

The election billed to hold on 30th June 2008 at the Onyx Plaza, I Sola Arobiodu road, G.R.A Ikeja starts by 12:00p.m with accreditation of voters. The voting is scheduled to start by 1:00p.m and to end by 3:00p.m. By 5:00p.m, the dust of the electoral contest, observers believe, would have settled and the winners known. For now the question remains: “who becomes the next chair of the Ikeja bar – Dave Ajetomobi or Beckley Abioye?

Well, go and cast your votes. May the candidates who will better serve the interests of the Ikeja bar as chairman and secretary win!

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.

WILL ELECTION CRISIS CRUSH THE TIGER BAR?

These are not the best of times for the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association as her bi-annual ritual of leadership renewal is heading very fast, towards a fiasco.

In fact, the Tiger branch is on the brink of a precipice, no thanks to the escapist antics of a lazy, dithering and obviously cowardly Committee of Election conductors, which the branch, courtesy of a negatively scheming Niyi Idowu administration has entrusted her future to.

On May 5, 2008, the Tiger branch set up a three man Committee in line with her bye-laws to conduct elections into the Executive Committee of the branch in June 2008 when the present incumbents will vacate office.
The three “wise men” saddled with this great responsibility are Taiwo Adeoluwa (called 1986) Rex Onobrakpreya (called 1985) and Gbenga Akingbehin (called 1988). Unfortunately, events have shown that these gentlemen do not have the requisite capacity to see through their hard but noble task.

By a letter dated 20th May, 2008 but which was only delivered on the 23rd May, 2008 to Niyi Idowu Esq., the chairman of the branch, the Electoral Committee gave indication of its unpreparedness to hold the elections as scheduled for June 2 2008. The Committee proposes instead that either the elections be conducted for every available contestant whether qualified under the branch bye-laws to run or not, or that the elections be postponed while a care-taker committee be set-up to run the branch until when elections are held (Please see cover story Exhibit).

In arriving at these rather shocking and disturbing positions, the Electoral Committee claimed that they were in possession of enough materials to disqualify all the candidates if the bye-laws were to be strictly followed.
According to the Electoral Committee, the records of payments of branch dues and that of the attendance of monthly meetings by members that are crucial to verifying the qualification of aspirants to contest have been so badly manipulated that they are unreliable tools to use.
Said the Electoral Committee:

(a) “should we rely on both the Attendance and Financial Records (knowing fully well that same have been doctored) to sustain or disqualify any candidate? Or

(b) “should we close our eyes to all the discrepancies and allow the candidates to contest, thereby disregarding Section 10 of the Bye-laws which makes provision for qualification.?

We wish to draw attention to Section 10 (1) (a) of our Bye-laws and the requirement of moral capacity and competency of the candidates for election. The activities of most of the contestants, the language employed on their co-contestants during the public sittings of our Committee and even the issue of sworn affidavits in lieu of payment receipts would violate the true intendment of our Bye-laws. There are enough materials to disqualify all the candidates if the bye-laws were to be strictly construed.”

The question is, how valid are the contentions of the Adeoluwa Electoral Committee?

In the sober judgement of this magazine, the Electoral Committee is guilty of exaggerating the problems at hand, so as to avoid the responsibility of doing their work.

Right from the on-set, it can be fairly said that the Committee was not actually fit for the task given to it by the Ikeja Bar.

Even though it was appointed on the 5th May, 2008 to hold elections on June 2, 2008, less than a month away then, the Committee held her first meeting only on the 12th May, 2008 and just for about one hour.
Even at that point, the Squib can authoritatively reveal that the Committee was already feeling intimidated by the arduous prospects of screening candidates for eligibility and conducting elections.

At that first meeting, upon receiving a so called deluge of petitions and with promise of more of such to come, the chairman of the Electoral Committee, Taiwo Adeoluwa was heard voicing his opinion in public at the secretariat of the Ikeja branch that he was uncomfortable and shocked with the tension which the impending political contest had generated in the Ikeja Branch. The solution according to the chairman, in his personal opinion was that all the aspirants whatever qualification defects they might have should be allowed to contest.

This perspective was also shared by Rex Onobrakpeya Esq., the ordinary member of the Electoral Committee, who although the most senior of the three-man Committee curiously elected not to chair the Committee.
Analysts wondered at the expression of shock and disturbance of both Messrs Adeoluwa and Onobrakpeya at the so-called volatile election tension said to have gripped the Ikeja Bar, because such tension is a normal election year occurrence.

On the 14th May, 2008, the Electoral Committee held her second meeting - this time with contestants to consider pending petitions. But, even before the meeting sat, the Chairman, Taiwo Adeoluwa was heard opining freely, too freely in public perhaps that all the parties are guilty of doctoring records.

Expectedly, at the meeting of 14th May, 2008, sparks flew between petitioners and candidates petitioned against. But it was nothing physical or out of hand, but the intensity of the presentation and defence of different contentions and positions by candidates only worked to unnerve the Electoral Committee members more, particularly, the Chairman, Taiwo Adeoluwa and Rex Onobrakpeya.

Observers and activists of the Ikeja Bar view the fearfulness of the Electoral Committee members as a direct result of their superficial relationship with the vigorous Tiger bar. There may be some merit in this position. The most seemingly stable member of the Committee is the Secretary, Gbenga Akingbehin, a University of Lagos lecturer who happens to be, of the trio, the most familiar with the Ikeja Bar.

Rex Onobrakpeya is an on and off attendee and participant of the Ikeja Bar meetings and activites, while the Electoral Committee Chairman, is simply a neophyte bar-man. The day he was nominated into the Electoral committee, he was, to many members, like a visitor from Jupiter. Many members simply wondered who the gentleman was. Neither his face nor name was known to many Tigers, even up till now.

In maintaining a position that the records of the association are so badly tampered with, that they could not be used for verifying the qualification of contestants, analysts contend that the Electoral Committee could not be right.

Although the third meeting of the Electoral Committee of 19th May, 2008, with Beckley Abioye, the General Secretary and Yinka Farounbi, the Financial Secretary who are the record keepers of the meeting attendance and branch due payments of the branch respectively, revealed that there are discrepancies in the records, the discrepancies cannot be said to be so pervasive and thick enough for the records to be un-usable.
There are valid reasons for this contention:

1. Petitions did not lie against all the contestants, who in all, number twenty and are as follows:

Chairman
1. Dave Ajetomobi
2. Dele Oloke
3. Niyi Akinmola
4. Beckley Abioye

1st Vice-Chairman
5. Dare Akande
6. Charles Biyi Oguntuga

2nd Vice-Chairman
7. Maimuna Esegine
8. Terry Adeniji Badmus
9. Olufemi O. Dafosta

General Secretary
10. Titilayo Osagie
11. Isa Mohammed Buhari

Assistant General Secretary
12. Gbenga Ajayi


Financial Secretary
13. Leye Omitola

Welfare Secretary
14. Chinwe Joy Nwadike
15. A. Ahmed

Publicity Secretary
16. S.O. Omodara
17. Lateef Abdusalam

Social Secretary
18. E.R.A Otobo
19. Abiola Oketoki

Treasurer
20. S.O Adesina

As at today, all properly submitted pending petitions with the electoral committee are as follows:

Petitioners Vs Respondents Status

Dave Ajetomobi Vs Niyi Akinmola Chairman
Dare Akande Vs Charles Oguntuga 1st V.C.
Charles Oguntuga Vs Dare Akande 1st V.C.
Terry Badmus Adeniji Vs Maimuna Esigene 2nd V.C.
Isa Mohammed Buhari Vs Titilayo Osagie Gen. Sec.
Chinwe Joy Vs A. Ahmed Welfare Sec.
Lateef Abdusalam Vs S.O.Omodara Publicity Sec.
E.R.A. Otobo Vs Abiola Oketoki Social Sec.

Clearly, only about half of the candidates have petitions (even cross petitions too) against each other and only in about six offices.
So, in the light of the above facts why would the Electoral Committee sweepingly and peremptorily hold that they cannot hold elections and that all the candidates are fit for disqualification?

For the purpose of further clarity, it will be shown shortly that for a reasonable and industrious Electoral Committee, there are enough reasons and basis to find candidates who are actually qualified to vie for posts and to hold elections for them.

In the post of chairman, there are four candidates. There is no petition or counter petition against Beckley Abioye and Dele Oloke. Same can be said of Dave Ajetomobi.

According to the Committee, in a chat with the SQUIB on the 23rd May, 2008, even though Abioye has no petition against him, he lacks the moral right to vie for chairman being so heavily involved in the falsification of records of attendance of branch meetings. While this allegation is quite true against Abioye, it is unfair to allege that he falsified records against every contestant and that all his records are manifestly unreliable.

In fact, evidence so far only showed that he added to the attendance marks of certain contestants like Biyi Oguntuga, Biola Oketoki, Maimuna Esegine, especially in the 2006/2007 year but there is no evidence or proof that he reduced the eligibility quotient of any candidate as per attendance of meetings, except possibly of Olufemi Dafosta Osinowo. Even at this, the Committee did not find the time or the trouble to take up the secretary on each of the records he wrote for each candidate.

In fact, at his “trial” before the Electoral Committee on the 19th May, 2008, the Electoral Committee Chairman apparently filled with disgust, impatiently closed the case against the secretary just after only one case of fraud padding of record of meeting attendance with respect to the records of Biyi Oguntuga a 1st Vice - Chairman candidate was established against Beckley Abioye. It was like a case of “since you were fraudulent here, you must be fraudulent elsewhere and everywhere else.” To the Squib, this is an unfair and generalised position to take against Abioye.

Candidate Dele Oloke has no petition against him but the Abioye report indicted him as being in attendance of branch meetings only six times in the 2006/2007 year. Before the Committee, Oloke disagreed with this claim but had not tangible proof that his records were unfavourably altered by Abioye.

Yet, the Committee appeared swayed to his side against the embattled Abioye but yet would not clear Oloke for the election.
As for candidate Niyi Akinmola, the petition against him from Dave Ajetomobi alleged and with concrete proof that his seconder, Biyi Oguntuga was not qualified to second him because of inadequate attendance of branch meetings.

So, at the chairmanship level, the only seemingly qualified candidate is Dave Ajetomobi. This was because as at Friday the 16th May, 2008 which was held by the Electoral Committee to be the last day for submission of petitions, there was no petition against Dave Ajetomobi and so, none was treated by the Electoral Committee on 19th May, 2008. Yet the electoral committee refused to clear him for the election
Curiously, on Wednesday the 21st May, 2008, several days after submission of petitions had lapsed, the chairman of the Electoral Committee received the petition of Niyi Akinmola against Dave Ajetomobi and appeared to be treating the unproven document as valid by its mere belated existence.

At the level of the vice-chairmanship (1st and 2nd), the petitions basically are on just two main issues:
(a) lack of sufficient attendance of bar meetings.
(b) non-payment of branch dues.

Whereas (a) above affect both Charles Oguntuga (1st Vice Chairmanship aspirant), and, Maimuna Esigene (2nd Vice Chairmanship aspirant) with credible and clear proof of the allegations.
(b) above affects Dare Akande Esq. with no proof of same, yet, candidates Terry Adeniji Badmus (2nd Vice-Chairmanship aspirant) and Dare Akande (1st Vice-Chairmanship aspirant) were not cleared to run for the elections.

At the General Secretary level, candidate Isa Mohammed Buhari has no petition against him and the Electoral Committee has not found any fault in him, yet the Committee did not clear him for the election. His only opponent, Titilayo Osagie (Mrs), clearly weighed down by the allegation of inadequate payment of branch dues and who has no constitutionally acceptable proof otherwise ordinarily stands disqualified and so elections ought to be conducted for only Isa Mohammed Buhari in that category. But the electoral committee kept mum on the Osagie’s case when the lady put up her rather spirited defence to explain away her predicament.

In the case of the Social Secretary, there is no petition against candidate Emmanuel Otobo and the Committee has no complaint against him on any ground. Surprisingly, the Adeoluwa Committee says that this candidate is not qualified to run.

Otobo’s only opponent, Abiola Oketoki has qualification challenges against her on the two grounds of non-payment of branch dues and insufficient attendance of branch meetings. While the Committee found out that the lady may have possible defence to the first charge, (non-payment of branch dues), there was no escape route for her in the second charge, as the published attendance list of members at meetings thoroughly exposed her as regularly absent from meetings of the branch for most of the 2006/2007 year. So, a candidate like this should stand disqualified.

As for the Publicity Secretary slot, there is no petition against Lateef Abdusalam and as the Electoral Committee finds no fault with the candidate, it has no reason or right to claim that he is not eligible to contest in the election.

Abdusalam’s opponent, S.O.A Omodara, is tackled by his opponent on the twin issues of non-payment of branch dues. Since the Committee was claiming that the records of the Financial Secretary was tampered with, in this regard, it ought to have determined by whom and for whose benefits. If there were doubts in the matter, such should be resolved in favour of candidate Omodara.

As regards the allegation of insufficient attendance of branch meetings, the Committee ought to have looked into the allegation and if it is found that Secretary Abioye inflated the attendance records of candidate Omodara to enable him to qualify for contest, then he should be disqualified on that score. But if the reverse was found to be true then he should be allow to run.

On the Welfare Secretary’s slot, there are only two candidates - Chinwe Joy Nwadike and A. Ahmed. While Chinwe falls short of the required number of meeting attendance as per the Abioye report and so should be disqualified if the report is found valid (note that candidate Joy Nwadike has not complained against the Abioye report), the allegation against Ahmed (failure to pay adequate practicing fees), has not been looked into by the committee to determined his validity or otherwise.

As for Leye Omitola, the sole candidate for Financial Secretary’s, there is no petition against him and there is no evidence of his violating any qualifying standards yet the electoral committee refused to clear him for the election and this should be cleared by the Committee.

The situation is almost the same for Gbenga Ajayi, the sole candidate for Assistant General Secretary.

The only other solo candidate, S.O.A Adesina in the Treasurer position has no petition against him, but the Abioye Report indicted him for insufficient attendance of branch meetings. If this claim is true, then Adesina should be disqualified but the electoral committee has not even verify the Abioye report on Adesina.

From the foregoing analysis, it is clear that there are candidates that have no qualification problems at all, contrary to the assertion of the Electoral Committee in their letter of 20th May, 2008 to the Chairman of the NBA, Ikeja Branch.

In the humble view of this magazine, the only way forward is for the elections to hold. The Adeoluwa Committee should be made to do its job or resign immediately for incompetence and gross dereliction of duty.

A critical appraisal of the mood and conduct of the Electoral Committee make it reasonable for people to suspect it of mischief and plain bone-laziness. Else how could a committee saddled with such a grave responsibility such as conducting a bar election condemn the entire political players and actors without providing specific data against each candidate but rely heavily on sweeping statements, generalisation, mass condemnation and blackmail. The Adeoluwa Electoral Committee should be told that their job is not a piece of cake and that they should find the courage and grit to do the right thing, instead of looking for scape-goats.
Section 18 (1a-d) of the bye-laws of the Ikeja bar provides for what to do where offices are vacant after elections to the effect that where all the Executive offices are not filled after elections such offices are to be filled by the members of the new Executive Committee intact who choose appointees by themselves from members of the branch.
This is another useful road for the Electoral Committee to steer the NBA Ikeja to, if it finds the courage to conduct the June 2 2008 elections. As amply demonstrated above, there are:
(a) sole candidates in some offices without any qualification blemishes
(b) offices where only one or two in their class have no qualification blemishes

Elections should be conducted for such candidates while those who cannot qualify should be disqualified.

From credible reports reaching the Squib, Niyi Idowu the out-going chairman of the Ikeja Bar is acutely embarrassed by the letter of the Adeoluwa Committee of 20 May 2004. Geckos who were present when the chairman received the letter from Taiwo Adeoluwa Esq. the chairman of the electoral committee told the Squib that upon reading the letter Idowu broke out in cold sweat.

This is understandable. The contents of the letter is a damnation of not only his regime but a potent rubbishing of his political godson Beckley Abioye who he so desperately wanted as his successor, as a political fraudster. Only a few observers of the Tiger branch has much sympathy for Idowu however. He was heavily instrumental in his capacity as the presiding officer of the May 5 2008 meeting of the Tigers to the constitution of the Adeoluwa committee; most of whom are strangers to the Ikeja Bar and have no time or the much needed sacrificial disposition and courage to discharge the onerous burdens of election conduct placed on them and as such could not stand to be counted when it mattered most to do the right thing no matter whose ox was gored.

After heedlessly breaking faith with his political family which made him and now supported by a company of largely inexperienced and minimally influential underlings, which a political commentator has dubbed a “rag-tag army” in his quest to determine who his successor would be, Idowu may well end his tenure on the infamous record of being the first chairman of the Tiger bar who came to the ‘throne’ peacefully, popularly and gloriously but left in shame and in chaos.

ILLEGALITY OR LEGALITY: WHICH WAY WILL THE TIGERS GO IN THE JUNE 2008 ELECTIONS?

It is no longer news that the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association is preparing to elect new hands to man her leadership. The incumbent Niyi Idowu administration will expire came June 2 2008.

But who will be the new leaders of the Tiger branch? The answer to that question lies not only with the electorate, but also on the conductors of the election.
For this year’s election, a three – man electoral committee to wit, Taiwo Adeoluwa Esq. Rex Onobrakpeya and Akin Akingbehin a.k.a idea’ was constituted amidst a lot of furore at the meeting of the Tigers of 4th May 2008.
Since her stormy and unavoidably political birth, the Electoral Committee has had no rest. Because of the sensitive nature of the assignment on her hands, every move, act or declaration of the Committee has been subject of all manners of speculation, and criticisms.
For example the very first decision of the E.C to wit to make Taiwo Adeoluwa Esq. (called to the bar in 1986) the chairman of the E.C ahead of Rex Onobrakpeya Esq. (called to the bar in 1985) raised serious suspicions in some quarters-that the ascendancy of Adeoluwa to the post of chairman above his senior colleague – Onobrakpeya was to give Adeoluwa a sure –foot hold to bend the electoral rules for the candidates supported by Niyi Idowu Esq. the incumbent chairman of the NBA.
Such quarters refused to believe that Adeoluwa, a financial supporter of the Niyi Idowu administration but who hardly participate otherwise in Ikeja bar affairs was not summoned by the chairman to help the fortunes of Beckley Abioye, whom he (Idowu) was sponsoring to succeed him as chairman.
Clearly the E.C has a huge task in her hands to conduct a credible election. As at press time, according to Mr. Akingbehin, the Secretary of the E.C. there was no less than ten petitions by and against various candidates in the election pending before her.
This is an unprecedented development. At least in the past twelve years of the Tiger branch, there was never such a wide rash of petitions before any E.C. Incidentally there had never been a time too that four persons would be contesting the chairmanship of the branch.
Squib’s investigation reveal that the most important question before the E.C and which may even tear the body apart is “whether or not to allow ALL contestants who have submitted nomination papers to contest regardless whether they qualify to so contest under the electoral guidelines of the bye – laws of the branch?
Of the four chairmanship contestants, only one, to wit Dele Oloke, appears to be clamoring for blanket clearance of all contestants irrespective of whether they meet the eligibility requirements of the bye-laws as candidates or not. Dele Oloke, who is bearing the cross of a negative eligibility report, is of the opinion that the rules be ignored. At a meeting the E.C held with all aspirants on Monday 12th May 2008, Oloke ingeniously submitted that “our bye laws is dead and as such should not be followed”. Curiously however in his further arguments Oloke was heard relying on sections of the bye-laws which moments ago he had declared dead.!
At the said meeting of 12th May, some of the contestants levied accusation against their opponents and some members of the outgoing executive committee, particularly Mr. Beckley Abioye, the incumbent General Secretary and Mr. Yinka Farounbi the Financial Secretary.
For example Mrs. Titi Osagie whose opponent Isa Mohammed Buhari alleged to have under paid her branch dues for year 2006-2007, claimed in her defence that it was Farounbi the Financial Secretary, who was her Principal in Chambers in 2006 who “deliberately under paid for me so that at a time like this, it can be used against me”. The lady went on to add that:
“But when I discovered this, I went and paid up the balance (N500:00) and collected the receipt. Unfortunately as I was going home, robbers attacked me in the bus and went away with my purse which contained the receipt”
While Mrs. Osagie was at her story, a gecko perching by the door was heard asking another gecko whether the lady ever studied creative writing at the University!
It appears that many of the petitions pertaining to the issue of attendance of the branch meetings up to the required level, challenges the veracity of the report of the incumbent General Secretary on the matter.
It would be recalled that in the last edition of the Squib, the Abioye report was thoroughly exposed as a document that told many lies in many parts.
At the meeting of the 12th May, Abioye himself in his capacity as a chairmanship candidate was present. In his brief defence of himself Abioye told the committee that they should not rely on the attendance lists which his office published and attached to minutes of the monthly meetings of the branch and circulated to members but rather should rely on the attendance notebooks which was in his care but now submitted to the committee.
When Abioye gave this advice, many people wondered whether the published attendance lists were not prepared from the attendance notebooks he was asking the E.C to rely on
According to geckos, the hero of the meeting was no other person than S.O.A Adesina Esq, the solo candidate for treasurer.
Unlike so many other candidates who were declared by the Abioye report as having fallen short of the minimum of 7 meeting attendance requirement, and were rooting for blanket eligibility for all candidates, Adesina declared that if the Electoral Committee finds out that he did not make the minimum requirement on attendance of branch meetings as stated by the Abioye report, he should be disqualified! A loud, widespread applause greeted this noble declaration.
At the end if the meeting, the E.C declared that it would investigate all petitions before it and that in that wise it would be meeting with both the General Secretary and Financial Secretary of the branch to clear themselves of the various allegations of falsification of records made against them.
Discreet investigations by the Squib reveals that the E.C., except care is taken, may split up. While the chairman, Taiwo Adeoluwa has expressed “my personal opinion” to all the contestants at the meeting of 12th May 2008 that it is best to allow everybody to contest because “there are too many petitions and too much tension” the secretary, Akin Akingbehin is of the mind that the proper thing to do is to follow the electoral guidelines.
However it appears that the chairman has expanded his view on the conduct of the election. Said Adeoluwa to the Squib on Friday 16th May 2008, “Our mission is to hold a credible election. We shall not close our eyes to the bye-laws. We are lawyers but at the same time we shall not close our eyes to the realities on the ground. The reality on the ground is that two (power) blocks are ‘fighting’. It appears one block has tampered with the records of attendance, while the other has tampered with the records of payment of dues. We shall look into all these allegations thoroughly.
I want to assure everybody that I am not in the E.C to do my one’s bidding. And anybody who is nursing any such hopes has failed”.
Mr. Rex Onobrakpeya, the third member of the committee spoke in like vein too. Speaking to the Squib on Saturday the 17th May 2008, Onobrakpeya said: “I chose not to be chairman of the Electoral Committee on personal grounds, even though Mr. Adeoluwa wanted me to be. I have no interest in anybody becoming anything. My own concern is that the Tiger Bar should not go into limbo and lose its Tiger identity.
I do not believe in speculations. People should wait for the outcome of our investigation. As at today, the out-going executive is accused of doctoring records. We shall investigate the claims dispassionately and then decide”
In his own view, Akin Akingbehin the E.C secretary strongly believes in the propriety of following the bye-laws in conducting the elections. According to Akingbehin in his chat with the Squib on Saturday 17th May 2008 “My own position is that our bye-laws should be followed. Our committee was set up to conduct elections and assess the eligibility of candidates and that we shall do. If we have a report from the Exco concerning eligibility of candidates, we must give it a presumption of regularity. But where there is a challenge to the report, we have to look at the challenge. If it is unmeritorious, we throw it out. But if it has merit, we uphold it. There is no big deal in disqualifying ineligible candidates from the elections. That is the law and it has been done before. In the 2006 elections some candidates were disqualified because they were found not to have satisfied the requirements governing the contest, I think particularly on the issue of attendance of monthly meetings. The disqualified candidates were ladies and their supporters even carried placards in protest, but nobody minded them because you can’t fight the law with sentiments.
I didn’t believe we, as Electoral Committee, have power on our own to discard the bye-laws of the branch. If the matter is referred to the-whole house and they say we should abandon the bye-laws in conducting the elections, then we can do it.
But if my colleagues in the E.C say that on our own, we should ignore the bye-laws to conduct the election I will honourably tender my resignation letter. I will not participate in such a thing”.

SQUIB’S POSITION:
There ought to be no debate about the conduct of the elections being in line with the bye-laws of the branch. That position should be taken for granted because it is the right and correct position to take. A professional body such as the NBA sets a very bad example to the society if she indicates that it is acceptable to distance itself from legality in the conduct of her own affairs.
Secondly the intendment of the makers of the bye-laws, was to ensure that only-committed members of the branch occupy her leadership cadre. Such a noble idea (the requirement of regular attendance of branch meetings and payment of branch dues not only for election candidates but also their nominators and seconders could only be to screen out diffident or irregular spectator-type, or nominal members from leadership cadre of the branch) would be defeated however if the eligibility rules are discarded in the conduct of the branch election. In such an eventuality, the greater the chance of the branch having on its leadership unsuitable characters lacking in knowledge and experience of bar activities and conduct becomes very high.
Thirdly where the E.C puts her feet down on the side of legality, a strong and clear message is sent to all members that only those who can sacrifice their time and money for the branch (by attending meetings regularly and supporting the branch financially) will be allowed in the corridor of the branch’s power. Thus adventurers and such unstable characters are shut out from gaining control of the branch and ruin it.

After all said and done, which path will the Taiwo Adeoluwa Electoral Committee toe in discharging her duties? Is it the path of legality or will it go the way of illegality?
The whole world is watching and waiting.