BY EMEKA NWADIOKE

One of the aspirants for the forthcoming Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) National Elections has told CITY LAWYER that he did not contest his disqualification by the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) for “personal reasons.”

According to Mr. Echika Ejido, immediate past Provost of the factional NBA Abuja Branch, though he filed to contest for the post of Assistant Publicity Secretary, he did not appeal the decision of the electoral committee which cut short his political ambition.

The ECNBA had granted “provisional clearance” to 24 aspirants while disqualifying 19 others. The disqualified aspirants had till 4 pm yesterday to appeal the ECNBA decisions.

He is perhaps the second aspirant that has resigned himself to fate, even as Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Katsina Branch, Mr. Abdulgaffar Alhaji Ahmed may have also decided to tow the same line.

In an interview with CITY LAWYER, Ejido said: “I submitted form for the post of Assistant Publicity Secretary. I was disqualified on the basis that the two years at Branch EXCO is counted in days, and nominations closed on 29th May, 2020 while my two years tenure as Branch EXCO member ended 2 weeks later on June 11. So, I don’t have the required two years branch EXCO qualifying requirement.”

Arguing that his disqualification “is contestable,” Ejido said: “I won’t challenge my disqualification. I have decided not to contest same for personal reasons.”

Quite popular especially in Abuja Bar circles, Ejido sensationally left the Ezenwa Anumnu-led faction of the branch to pitch tent with the rival Abimbola Kayode faction.

Ahmed had also indicated he may have resigned himself to fate, following his disqualification. An aspirant to the post of Second Vice President, Ahmed had while reacting to his disqualification by the ECNBA said: “I thank all my supporters near and far. Thank you so much for being here. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked for, and I’m sorry we did not make it to the election race for the values we share and the vision we hold for our beloved bar.”

Please send emails to citylawyermag@gmail.com. Copyright 2020 CITY LAWYER. All materials available on this Website are protected by copyright, trade mark and other proprietary and intellectual property laws. You may not use any of our intellectual property rights without our express written consent or attribution to www.citylawyermag.com. However, you are permitted to print or save to your individual PC, tablet or storage extracts from this Website for your own personal non-commercial use.