• ASKS COMMITTEE TO POSTPONE ELECTION
• URGES ELDERS TO INTERVENE
• CLAIMS NBA HOUSE IS MEDDLING
• URGES YOUNG LAWYERS TO RETHINK

The immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Port Harcourt Branch, Mrs. Cordelia Eke has been removed from the branch WhatApp platform by the Caretaker Committee appointed by NBA President, Mr. Afam Osigwe SAN to manage the branch affairs.

In a statement made available to CITY LAWYER, Eke decried her expulsion from the platform, claiming that she merely enquired why the committee is bent on proceeding with the branch election scheduled for today after posting the final voters’ list and notice of election around midnight and expecting members to comply barely a few hours to the election.

She accused the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mr. Idris Abayomi Shehu of high-handedness, warning that proceeding with the election could throw the branch into a needless crisis.

Praised for her leadership as the pioneer female chairman of the branch, Eke urged members to take their destiny in their own hands and not allow “strangers” to dictate to them how to run their internal affairs.

When contacted via WhatsApp for his response, Shehu has so far failed to respond to the allegation having read the text.

CITY LAWYER recalls that some stakeholders have raised several issues surrounding the election, even as the NBA filed a Notice of Motion at the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt urging vacation of an injunction by Justice Prince Chika Mini which ordered the Caretaker Committee to pause all activities relating to the election. The committee however claims that it is in receipt of a Notice of Discontinuance filed by the plaintiffs regarding the lawsuit.

Below is the full text of the statement by Eke.

WAKE UP, NBA PORT HARCOURT BRANCH

My dear colleagues,

I woke up to see that Idris Abayomi Shehu, the Caretaker Committee Chairman has removed me from the branch platforms because I asked him why he should be posting a list of voters and election notice by 11pm and expect members to comply by 7AM! All so that he can conduct elections today. Yes, this is where we find ourselves.

How can I blame him, when members of our branch sold us out to him. if we have internal issues, and instead of exhausting internal resolution mechanisms, a few persons who felt they know it all, went to court, thinking it was just about past chairman and branch electoral committee. They procured an injunction to stop our elections and celebrated because they thought they had won. How myopic!

The NBA President was quick to set up a Caretaker committee when the tenure of the immediate past EXCO was still running, preempting any attempt by our branch to set up its caretaker committee. To avoid having 2 Caretaker committees and deepening the problems the immediate past EXCO allowed this anomaly slide. A past President had tried to stop that from happening but was disregarded.

Today we see the very same problem Rivers State has been going through repeating itself in our branch, which has opened the door to strangers to plunder our branch and rubbish the people in the branch. Now, those who said Cordelia Eke was bad can no longer talk. Now we have people who do not pretend about their intentions on seat, yet those who cried wolf when there was none, have now gone silent.

We now see the standards we set in our branch being eroded and it no longer matters because a few men have satisfied their ego that I am not the one in charge. They lose sight of the fact that this is beyond Cordelia Eke, and about our common destiny as a branch. I see that some elders are ready to go voting, even if it is a tainted party counting the votes. Some young lawyers are eager to vote because they feel their candidate is the anointed. I wish you all luck.

Today we shall see what members of this branch are made of; whether for once we will put aside pettiness and selfishness and protect the interest of the branch or we will go tail between our legs, or as subdued and impotent, to obey the last order.

The NBA national election was conducted amidst complaints and the result is there for us all to see. The same template is about to be replicated in Port Harcourt branch. The NBA President is not the Chairman of the branch, the same way President Tinubu is not Governor of any state. Would President Tinubu go to any state to enforce an election? Or impose himself on the people by intimidating them with his presence?

I am not against an election being held, but if members previously complained about a voters list which was being cleaned up, yet they went to court, then members are entitled to something better and should be carried along in the process to determine their leaders. Not to have notices forced down their throats at midnight with no meetings called to ventilate issues and agree on a common course of action. As though they are in a Sole Administratorship.

Why the hurry to conduct elections today? Why not postpone till next week? Let it be known that if elections proceed today, whatever officers are produced would have commenced on a wrong foundation that will follow them for several years. The caretaker committee will run to their branches and leave us with our troubles.

I saw another court injunction and letter of withdrawal. On what terms have these negotiations been made? Have you asked yourselves?

I saw a letter from Sammie Somiari, SAN with Maduba’s name embossed on the document, claiming that the new EXCO would be involved in the AGC planning. The question is why has there not been a state wide LOC set up for the conference up till now? Why has the NBA President, and Sammie Somiari, SAN, (Co-chair of the AGC planning committee) refused to have it set up? Yet they are working with individuals for a conference to be hosted by NBA PH next month! Are they waiting for a particular activity or person before they set up the LOC for AGC next month?

Well, I have served my tenure as Chairman, and nothing will change my records. But it is painful to see our great branch being treated with disdain by outsiders, like a house without elders. Our younger colleagues who are always quick to challenge seniors in the branch have gone silent. Have they also been bought over by parties and gifts? What they do not know is that it would be worse for them tomorrow if our branch is destroyed today.

Abuja branch the home of the NBA President is in similar dire straits. It cost them many years previously, which led to the break up of the branch. Those in charge of our branch today will leave us after carrying out their mission.

Today I write as a past Chairman of this great branch, and I speak for myself . Make your decisions wisely today. Because it will determine the future of our branch tomorrow.

May God Bless you and bless our dear branch.

Cordelia Uwuma Eke,
Past Chairman, NBA Port Harcourt Branch.

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