The immediate past Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Yetunde Onanuga has been praised for her high degree of dedication and commitment to the development of Ogun State as she turns 60.
At a ceremony held at Onanuga’s Lagos residence on Friday, former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, described his former deputy as selfless.
Amosun, who currently represents the people of Ogun Central at the Senate, said Onanuga’s service impacted on the unprecedented development Ogun State witnessed during his administration.
Also, the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) during the Amosun administration, Taiwo Adeoluwa, who spoke on behalf of all executive members of the 2015 – 2019 Ogun State Government, appreciated the enormous contributions of the former deputy governor in the development of the gateway state.
He stated that looking at the history of Ogun State, Mrs Onanuga will always be remembered for everything she has done towards the empowerment of women and young girls across the State.
Present at the ceremony include former First Lady in the state, Olufunso Amosun; Hon Micky Kassim, a former member of the House of Representatives from Ogun State, members of the Amosun-led administration including former commissioners: Ms Segun Abiodun, Ms Adenrele Adesina, Mr. Wale Osinowo; and a former General Manager, Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC), Mr. ‘Jide Odusolu. Chief Sola Adeeyo and Mr Remi Adetayo were also present.
Peoples Democratic Party National Campaign Council for Edo State Governorship Election has called out the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency over the trending video showing the sacked National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, and the Chief of Staff to Mr. President, Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, in which alleged discussion on the arrests of certain individuals, ahead of the September 19 governorship election, was held.
“Nigerians were alarmed by the video in which Oshiomhole was seen emphatically urging the Chief of Staff to Mr. President on the need to clampdown on certain unnamed Nigerians to achieve political suppression and submission ahead of the Edo election.
File photo of Spokesman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kola Ologbodiyan.
“Our National Campaign holds that the presence and involvement of the Chief of Staff to the President and the fact that the discussion held within the precincts of the Presidential Villa, have made the Presidency complicit and place a huge burden on President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Already, there is anxiety in the public space that the discussion between Oshiomhole and Prof. Gambari as captured in the video is an extension of discussions that must have held behind closed doors in the Presidential Villa.
“The video has validated earlier revelations of plots by Oshiomhole and the discredited APC governorship candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, to use compromised security operatives being mobilised by certain individuals in the Presidency, to arrest innocent Nigerians, including traditional, faith-based and community leaders on trumped up charges, ahead of Edo State governorship election.
“It also confirms our stance that Adams Oshiomhole and the APC candidate have completely lost ground in Edo State, hence the plot to clamp down on the people.
“Nigerians and the people of Edo State now know those to hold responsible should there be cases of illegal arrests, assassinations and unexplained killings, sudden disappearances of prominent people, accidental discharge by federal security operatives and mysterious accidents in the course of this Edo State governorship election.
“The PDP National Campaign Council on Edo State governorship election charges President Buhari to reassure Nigerians by immediately ordering that Adams Oshiomhole and Prof. Gambari be pulled in for questioning over the video.
“Anything short of a decisive action on this matter will further indict the Buhari Presidency especially coming on the heels of public anxiety over Mr. President’s widely condemned comment on the use of security forces for elections.
“Our campaign, however, wants the APC and Oshiomhole to know that their ignoble plots against the people of Edo State have come to naught as the people are at alert and will use every legitimate means available to defend their already expressed will in support of the candidate of our party, the PDP, Governor Godwin Obaseki in this election,” PDP alleged, in a statement by its Secretary, National Campaign Council on Edo State Governorship Election, Kola Ologbondiyan.
“His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace,” the President added.
Donald Trump had reportedly visited his younger brother in hospital on Friday, after it was revealed he had been “very ill.”
SkyNews says cause of death has not been disclosed, however the businessman reportedly spent at least 10 days in June in the neurosciences intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
After he left hospital he sued his and the President’s niece, Mary Trump, over her plan to publish a book about the Trump family.
However, Robert failed in several court actions to stop publication of the book, which is called Too Much And Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.
Robert argued that Mary Trump had violated a non-disclosure agreement she signed with him, the president and their sister, retired federal appeals court judge Maryanne Trump Barry.
Mary Trump and her brother allegedly signed the agreement with their uncles and aunt over their share of the estate of Fred Trump Senior, the president and Robert Trump’s father, and Mary’s grandfather.
Mary’s father, the late Fred Trump Junior, died in 1981.
Despite their different personalities, the president was said to be very close to Robert, calling him “much quieter and easy-going than I am” and “the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.’”
Robert had run some of Mr Trump’s projects in the 1980s, and managed his family’s real estate portfolio. He was also part of New York’s social scene.
A former lawmaker, Buruji Kashamu, who represented Ogun East Senatorial district in the 8th National Assembly between 2015 and 2019, Saturday died of complications arising from the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
This was disclosed by a former lawmaker, Ben Murray-Bruce, who represented Bayelsa East same time with Kashamu.
“I have just lost my good friend of forever to COVID-19.
“Until his death, Senator Buruji Kashamu and I were inseparable.
“He died today at First Cardiology Consultants, in Lagos.
“May his gentle soul rest in peace. I pray his family and loved ones the fortitude to bear this heavy loss,” Murray-Bruce wrote on his verifiable Twitter handle.
Born on May 19, 1958, Kashamu, a billionaire businessman-cum-politician, was tested positive for the deadly virus some few days ago but later confirmed to be negative by doctors at a Lagos isolation centre.
But, his condition suddenly became deteriorated and was moved to First Cardiology Hospital in Lagos.
It was reported that Kashamu’s health became deteriorated because he had underlying chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart and lung diseases, including high blood pressure which weakened his immune system.
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Friday condemned Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, for resorting to the strong-arm tactics of dictators over crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.
Tinubu, in a terse statement titled: “In Defence of Constitutional Democracy,” which he personally signed, said: “The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern.
“Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators.
“First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly Building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words.
“As a pretext for his refusal to allow Edo State House of Assembly to function, Governor Obaseki’s actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the state’s budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons.
“Governor Obaseki’s governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigeria’s constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson.”
Tinubu added: “The legislative function is, perhaps, the most foundational obligation of any government. In the UK, the Parliament was famously said to be “that supreme and absolute power, which gives life and motion to the English government.” In most democratic systems, the legislature is the arm of government containing within itself the people’s representatives in government.
“As such, the legislative arm is critical. It is an important symbol of democratic governance. The voice, will and desires of the people are reposed in their elected representatives sent to the legislature to express and distill their amorphous will into the laws and codes by which the society has agreed to live.
“In the context of a constitutional democracy such as ours, the legislature’s authority stems, in effect, from the recognition that it is the authentic mouthpiece of the people, entrusted with the responsibility of representing their collective will and the power to interpret and mould it into the laws of the land. It is, in short, not to be toyed with as a plaything of an errant and ill-disciplined governor. Undermine the legislature and you imperil democracy and allow governance to descend into anarchy.
“Indeed, it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution. The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states. Indeed, the Constitution makes clear that a Governor’s role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his state’s legislature.”
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, alleged that Obaseki’s conduct in the past year was undoubtedly impeachable.
“In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above our nation’s constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment.
“These legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offense? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt.
“In his campaign for re-election, Governor Obaseki promises to represent and defend the interests of all the people of his state. Yet, so blinded is he by his personal ambition, he sees no irony in the fact that his actions have denied two-thirds of the people of his state their right to representation in the state’s only legislative chamber.
“Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time.
“The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one man’s ambition. Governor Obaseki’s woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the state’s democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired.”
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja assented to the Companies and Allied Matters Bill, 2020 recently passed by the National Assembly.
The President’s action on this important piece of legislation, therefore, repealed and replaced the extant Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, introducing after 30 years, several corporate legal innovations geared toward enhancing ease of doing business in the country.
Some of the innovations include:
“Filing fee reductions and other reforms to make it easier and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to register and reform their businesses in Nigeria;
“Allowing corporate promoters of companies to establish private companies with a single member or shareholder, and creating limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships to give investors and business people alternative forms of carrying out their business in an efficient and flexible way; Innovating processes and procedures to ease the operations of companies, such as introducing Statements of Compliance; replacing ‘authorised share capital’ with minimum share capital to reduce costs of incorporating companies; and providing for electronic filing, electronic share transfers, e-meetings as well as remote general meetings for private companies in response to the disruptions to close contact physical meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
“Requiring the disclosure of persons with significant control of companies in a register of beneficial owners to enhance corporate accountability and transparency; and
“Enhancing the minority shareholder protection and engagement; introducing enhanced business rescue reforms for insolvent companies; and permitting the merger of Incorporated Trustees for associations that share similar aims and objectives,” said Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
Nigeria Police Force has debunked the online story published by Sahara Reporters on August 03 under the heading ‘Exclusive: How Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police, Adamu, Illegally Raised Millions of Naira for Construction of Training School in Nasarawa.’
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, while reacting to the story described it as a misleading report, noting that spurious allegations were made with reference to several unnamed and unverifiable sources.
“In the report, spurious allegations were made to the effect that the Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A. Adamu was ‘involved in a multi-billion Naira fraudulent scheme.’
“The publication which referenced several unnamed and unverifiable sources alleged, essentially, that the IGP ‘used his office to unlawfully compel and in fact threaten Mobile Police Commanders into generating millions of Naira monthly through illegal means for the purpose of establishment of a MOPOL Training School in his home town of Endehu in Nasarawa State.’
“The Force wishes to state unequivocally that the publication in its entirety is false and baseless. It was published in the tradition of Sahara Reporters to blackmail and impugn the credibility of strategic leaders of the country in an apparent attempt to advance their ignoble and unpatriotic intentions,” Adamu said, in a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.
The force added that while it’s being conscious of the need not to glorify the falsehood contained in the reportage, it’s considered expedient and in national security interest to put the facts straight.
“The establishment of the Police Mobile Training School in Endehu, Nasarawa State, North-central geo-political zone of Nigeria was informed by overriding national security consideration on the need to strengthen the operational capacity of the special forces of the Nigeria Police Force.
“Also, the insinuation that the IGP sited the facility ‘in his hometown of Endehu in Nasarawa State’, is also utterly misleading. For the avoidance of doubts, Endehu is not the hometown of IGP Adamu. He is, in the contrary, from Lafia.
“The allegations that the IGP used his office to threaten Mobile Police Commanders into generating Millions of naira monthly through illegal means for the establishment of the institution is also totally false. It is on record that the parcel of land where the institution was sited was donated to the Police with the full complement of the Certificate of Occupancy which the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State publicly presented to the Nigeria Police. The acquisition of the land was, therefore, without any financial commitment by the Police.
“Furthermore, the construction of the facility was achieved with the support of the Nasarawa State Government and well-meaning corporate bodies within the context of their Corporate Social responsibility (CSR). In all instances, all the support so extended were not in cash but in form of donation of materials.
“The only involvement of some Squadron Commanders was to ensure the delivery of some of the construction materials so donated by the corporate bodies. Hence, the allegation that the IGP ‘had each Squadron Commander cough out nothing less than N500,000 monthly for the purpose of erecting different structures in the training school’ is a preposterous and feeble attempt to discredit the innovative reasoning that engendered the successful implementation of the critical national security asset that the facility represents,” the statement said.
The police added: “The construction of the project through corporate intervention is a demonstration of the commitment of the Force leadership to meet its obligation to citizens in terms of their safety and security and in furtherance to the Reform agenda of the Nigeria Police Force. It was not established as a personal asset of the IGP. Rather, it is a national security legacy project. It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that corporate organisations and governments at all levels are assisting the police to bridge operational and infrastructural gaps.
“Dangote Foundation, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Bankers’ Forum, State Governments, Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), and well-meaning individuals among others have in the past donated fleets of vehicles and have rendered other supports to the Police.
“The attempt by Sahara Reporters to malign the Force leadership shall not in any manner impact on the firm determination of the Nigeria Police Force to advance its strategic plan and to continue to adopt innovative reasoning in changing the policing narratives in Nigeria towards stabilising the internal security order.
“While members of the public are called upon to discountenance the content of the publication in its entirety, it is to be noted that the Nigeria Police Force has instructed its legal team to initiate legal actions against Sahara Reporters to address the defamatory and libellous components of the report.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has finally come to the aid of stranded scholarship students of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) studying abroad, ordering the payment of their outstanding fees and stipends with immediate effect.
The commission’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) has also said it stood by the list of NDDC contracts handled by members of the National Assembly, which was submitted by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, at the National Assembly in July.
It would be recalled that the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diapora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, recently wrote Akpabio to see to the payment of the fees, after the students protested over non-payment of their fees by NDDC.
Confirming the latest development on Tuesday, NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, in a statement, said the President has directed Akpabio to pay the students.
Odili assured that the students would be paid by the end of the week, explaining that the delay was caused by the sudden death of NDDC then Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Ibanga Etang, in May.
“Under the commission’s finance protocol, only the Executive Director (Finance) and the Executive Director (Projects) can sign for the release of funds from the commission’s domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA. Senator Akpabio, the Honourable Minister, said President Buhari who has been briefed on the protest by students at the Nigerian High Commission in London, has ordered that all stops be pulled to pay the students by the end of this week. We expect a new EDFA to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done, they would all be paid,” the statement explained.
On the list of NDDC contracts handled by members of the National Assembly, Odili noted that the list submitted by Akpabio was not compiled by the minister but came from the files in the commission.
He said the list submitted to the National Assembly was compiled by the then management of the commission in 2018, adding that there was another set of list for emergency project contracts awarded in 2017 and 2019 but were not submitted to the National Assembly.
According to him, “The Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the commission stands by the list, which came from files already in the possession of the forensic auditors.
“It is not an Akpabio list but the NDDC’s list. The list is part of the volume of 8,000 documents already handed over to the forensic auditors.”
He said prominent indigenes of the Niger Delta whose names were on the list should not panic as the commission discovered that people used their names to secure contracts, adding that the ongoing forensic audit would unearth persons behind the contracts.
He said the intention of the list was to expose committee chairmen in the National Assembly who used fronts to collect contracts from the commission, some of which were never executed.
Odili added that the list did not include a case of 250 contracts, which were signed for and collected in one day by one person for members of the National Assembly.
He said the forensic audit exercise was on course and the commission positioned 185 media support specialists to identify the sites of every project captured in its books for verification by the forensic auditors.
Odili advised members of the public to discountenance the “avalanche of falsehood being orchestrated by mischief makers,” regretting that “more insinuations and accusations may be thrown into the public space by those opposed to IMC.”
Meanwhile, NDDC had extended an invitation to Buhari to inaugurate a 29-kilometre Ogbia-Nembe Road in Bayelsa State.
This was disclosed by NDDC Director of Corporate Affairs, noting that the road was built in conjunction with Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) to create a land link to the ancient city of Nembe for the first time.
Odili explained that the road project, which cost N24 billion, cutting through swampy terrain to connect 14 other communities, needed 10 bridges and 99 culverts.
“To conquer the swampy terrain, the construction involved digging out four metres of clay soil and sand filling it to provide a base for the road. The road has cut the journey time to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, from three hours to one and a half hours.
“This project is not only a flagship intervention project in the Niger Delta region, it is also a model of development partnership between the commission and international oil companies in the region,” he said.
The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government Monday said it expended about N523.3 million on school feeding programme during the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)-induced lockdown.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADMSD), Sadiya Farouq, while speaking at the Presidential Taskforce briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.
Explaining that ‘Take Home Rations’ under the modified Home Grown School Feeding programme was not a sole initiative of MHADMSD, the minister said each ration was valued at N4,200 and that the figure was arrived at after proper consultation.
Farouq noted that the figure was generated from statistics provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“According to statistics from NBS and CBN, a typical household in Nigeria has 5.6 to six members in its household, with three to four dependents.
“So, each household is assumed to have three children.
“Based on the original design of the Home Grown School Feeding programme, long before it was domiciled in the ministry, every child on the programme receives a meal a day.
“The meal costs N70 per child.
“When you take 20 school days per month, it means a child eats food worth N1,400 per month.
“Three children would then eat food worth N4,200 per month and that was how we arrived at the cost of the ‘take-home ration.’
“The agreement was that the federal government will provide the funding while the states will implement.
“To ensure transparency in the process, we partnered with the World Food Programme (WFP) as technical partners,” the minister said.
Farouq added that her ministry invited government agencies like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Department of State Services (DSS) and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to monitor the process.
“TrackaNG monitored and gave daily updates validating the programme.
“In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 29,609 households were impacted, 37,589 households in Lagos and 60,391 in Ogun, making a total of 124,589 households impacted between May 14, and July 6.
“If 124,589 households received take home rations valued at N4,200, the amount will be N523,273,800.”
Establishing the process that led to the creation of take home rations from the Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Farouq said the programme was modified and implemented in three states following a March 29 presidential directive.
The minister said: “It is critical at this juncture to provide details that will help puncture the tissue of lies being peddled in the public space.
“The provision of ‘Take Home Rations’ under the modified Home Grown School Feeding programme, was not a sole initiative of MHADMSD.
“The ministry, in obeying the presidential directive, went into consultations with state governments through the Governor’s Forum, following which it was resolved that ‘take home rations’ remained the most viable option for feeding children during the lockdown.
“So, it was a joint resolution of the ministry and the state governments to give out take home rations.
“The stakeholders also resolved that we would start with the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states, as pilot cases.”
Farouq also used the occasion to insist that she never said every Nigerian received COVID-19 palliative during the lockdown, saying it’s impossible to give palliative to all Nigerians.
“Every state government received its shares of palliatives for onward distribution. I never said every Nigerian has received COVID-19 palliative. It is impossible to give palliative to all Nigerians,” she said.
President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday felicitated with Olumide Akpata on his election as the President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), wishing him every success in the new position of leading Nigerian lawyers to chart a path of professional development and fulfillment.
This was coming as the new NBA president dedicated his victory to young lawyers who have become disillusioned with the association; progressive senior lawyers who refused to accept the status quo; lawyers with disability who have long suffered neglect and indignity by the profession; and non-lawyers and the general populace who have a special interest in the association.
Buhari, in his congratulatory message signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, tasked Akpata to bring into forebear his vast experience to take the association to the next level.
“As a lawyer of over two decades who has held several strategic positions in the legal association,” Buhari trusted that “Mr. Akpata’s vast knowledge and experience in litigation, corporate world and engaging with government at different levels, will greatly benefit the Bar and indeed all Nigerians, who look up to the learned fellows as crucial stakeholders in a modern democracy.”
Nigerian President assured the new leadership of NBA of the continued cooperation of his administration in addressing the broad range of challenges and opportunities facing the legal profession and the country.
Dedicating his victory to disillusioned lawyers and non-lawyers, the new NBA president said the extraordinary movement that heralded his electoral victory was about the noble association.
According to him, “This further goes to show that the extraordinary movement that heralded this electoral victory was not and could never have been about me. The victory of last night is for our young lawyers who have become disillusioned with the way the NBA has been run over the years and how the profession appears to be disconnected from the challenges that face them and their future.
“It is for the progressive senior lawyer who refused to accept the status quo and took firm steps to ensure that things are done better. It is for the corporate counsel, law officers, law teachers, the police and military lawyers, and lawyers in all components of the profession who for long have been treated as unequal members of an Association that ought to be the umbrella body for all legal practitioners.
“The victory of last night is for the lawyer with disability who has long suffered neglect and indignity by the profession. Above all, our victory is for non-lawyers and the general populace who took an unusual, but a special, interest in the conduct of our elections, thus lending credence to my long- held belief that the Nigerian society has always yearned for a legal profession and indeed a Bar that stands tall as an unwavering bastion of the rule of law, an advocate for the sanctity and independence of the judiciary, and a bulwark against tyranny and oppression.
“It is therefore with immense respect for you, a deep understanding of the value of your mandate, a demonstrable appreciation of the factors that have bedevilled our noble association and with humility to the will of God, that I wholeheartedly accept this mandate from you. The outpouring of support is only indicative of the amount of work that needs to be done. The greatest appreciation that I can show to all of you is to keep to the various promises that I made, and this, I assure you that I would do.”
On the electoral process that brought him to leadership, Akpata said he was “not unaware of the complaints by at least one of the presidential candidates about the administrative issues surrounding the elections.”
He said: “As members of the legal profession, our electoral process ought to be and remain a standard for others to follow. I said this much in my second letter dated 29th July 2020 to the Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the NBA. I strongly believe that there is plenty room for improvement in our electoral process, and I commit to making this possible.”
Akpata congratulated all the contestants for the various offices in the association for the hard work that they put in, and for the successful outing that they had.
“The expectations are high and together we have a duty to devise measures to tackle the problems of our noble Association. We need to hit the ground running,” he added.
While appreciating his friends and learned seniors, Dele Adesina SAN, and Babatunde Ajibade SAN, against whom he had the privilege of contesting for the office of President of the NBA, Akpata said one thing that remained unshaken throughout the election process was his utmost respect for these distinguished and respectable gentlemen.
“May I humbly assure them that my respect remains intact. The election is over but the work ahead of us is immense. We must now unite in order to achieve our common goal of revitalising the Bar and ensuring that our voice is firm and unshaken when we speak. I obviously cannot do this alone and will be counting on their support and counsel as we work towards Securing the Future through a United Bar that Works for All,” he said.
Idowu Sowunmi
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