Crisis is currently rocking the secretariat of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) following the forced resignation of its top staff, Ms. Oludayo Olorunfemi. This is coming on the heels of today’s meeting of the NBA National Executive Council (NBA-NEC) in Abuja.

Olorunfemi is the NBA Acting Executive Director and Head of Human Resources.

This is against the backdrop of what a source called the “unceremonious exit” of Laura Alakija, a top aide and Executive Assistant to NBA President, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau SAN.

An impeccable source at the NBA HOUSE told CITY LAWYER that Olorunfemi has penned her resignation letter which would take effect in February next year following a three-month notice.

The source however told CITY LAWYER that the Secretariat Management Committee (SMC) chaired by Maikyau was considering the legal implications of terminating Olorunfemi’s appointment, an option the committee seems to favour.

The source told CITY LAWYER that the embattled top secretariat staff was earlier issued with a query and suspended afterwards. It was unclear at press time whether the resignation was aimed to obviate an outright sack by the SMC.

Another source told CITY LAWYER that Olorunfemi’s travails may not be unconnected with her trip to the recently concluded International Bar Association (IBA) conference in Paris, France which was reportedly not approved by the NBA Presidency.

In what the source termed “constructive dismissal,” Olorunfemi is reported to have been re-assigned to the Human Rights Institute (HRI), swapping positions with Ms. Salamatu Sidi, the top staff there who she earlier replaced.

The embattled secretariat chief and former Chairman of NBA NBA Ikere Ekiti Branch was the lynchpin and key hire in the secretariat reforms wrought by the immediate past NBA President Olumide Akpata.

Last April, she was named by Maikyau as a member of the Appointment and Remuneration Committee and “Head, Human Resource Department.”

A highly influential player in NBA circles and former Chairman of NBA Ikere Ekiti Branch, Olorunfemi was in May 2021 appointed by then Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi as the Executive Secretary of Ekiti State Mortgage Board.

Though a top source at NBA HOUSE said that Olorunfemi may have been purged as Akpata’s “eye and ear at the secretariat,” this was dismissed by another source who stated that “NBA is not that big for such intrigues.”

It was unclear at press time the circumstances leading to the exit of Alakija, even as it is speculated that she may have left due to “family pressures.”

CITY LAWYER recalls that the NBA Executive Committee was embroiled in crisis in the aftermath of the NBA Annual General Conference in August. NBA Treasurer Caroline Anze-Bishop told CITY LAWYER recently that she would not append her signature to the Treasurer’s Report to be presented at today’s NBA National Executive Council Meeting due to the crisis.

There are however strong indications that some rapprochement may have been hammered out between the feuding NBA national officers, as a source told CITY LAWYER that Anze-Bishop “has been at NBA HOUSE for almost two weeks now working on the Treasurer’s Report.”

To join our CITY LAWYER platform on WhatsApp, click here

To join our Telegram platform, click here 

COPYRIGHT 2022 CITY LAWYER. Please send emails to citylawyermag@gmail.com. Join us on Facebook at https://web.facebook.com/City-Lawyer-Magazine-434937936684320 and on “X” (TWITTER) at https://twitter.com/CityLawyerMag. To ADVERTISE in CITY LAWYER or for Special Features, please email citylawyermag@gmail.com or call 08138380083.

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.