The festering face-off between Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau SAN and out-of-favour NBA Treasurer, Caroline Anze-Bishop took a turn for the worse at the weekend.

Unimpeachable sources at the NBA National Executive Committee (NBA-NEC) meeting which held last Thursday told CITY LAWYER that Maikyau vowed that he would not approve any fund for the Treasurer’s trip to the forthcoming Annual General Conference (AGC) starting in Lagos on Friday.

A source at the “feisty” meeting told CITY LAWYER that though at least three National Officers including the Second Vice President, Third Vice President and Welfare Secretary urged Maikyau to reconsider his stand, the NBA President rejected their pleas.

It was gathered that the NBA President vowed that ‘over his dead body’ will he approve any fund for the embattled Treasurer.

CITY LAWYER gathered that Maikyau said that his grouse was that Bishop ‘took NBA Trustees to court.’ It is recalled that Bishop had filed an action in court asking the court to upturn her disqualification from the last NBA Elections. 

It was unclear at press time whether the latest face-off between the two gladiators is not unconnected with recent petitions by Bishop to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN in his capacity as the Chairman of the General Council of the Bar (GCB) and to Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN.

In the letter which was published in an exclusive report by CITY LAWYER, Bishop urged Fagbemi to “set-up a high-powered Committee to immediately and thoroughly consider and investigate my concerns.”

The letter was titled “A REPORT OF A PERPETUAL ABUSE OF OFFICE, THE MARGINALIZATION OF THE NBA NATIONAL TREASURER AND URSURPATION (SIC) OF HER DUTIES UNDER THE NBA CONSTITUTION (2021 AS AMENDED) BY THE PERSON OF THE NBA PRESIDENT MR. Y. C. MAIKYAU SAN: AN APPLICATION FOR AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION OF THIS COMPLAINT AND FOR YOUR NECESSARY ACTION.”

Bishop had vowed that she would not also endorse this year’s NBA Annual Report and Accounts at the AGC, saying: “As it stands now Sir, I know nothing about the Financial Position of the Association or how Mr. President is spending our Association’s finances. He simply does as he wishes and obviously without my involvement or referral to due official templates. In truth, Mr. President and G.S are the NBA Treasurers de facto while I have become a Treasurer who shows up at NEC and other Statutory Meetings to present and adopt an (sic) doctored Financial Report. My duties as contained in Section 9(5)(g) of the NBA Constitution 2021 as amended have been completely hijacked by the General Secretary with the total backing of Mr. President, without the slightest regard to my enshrined Constitutional mandate.”

Continuing, she vowed that “It goes without saying therefore that I cannot endorse Annual Financial Report or present same at the subsequent NBA AGM 2024 as the NBA National Treasurer, because my job has once again been hijacked and I am still and left in gross darkness as to the Financial Status of the Bar.”

It is recalled that Bishop made a similar charge of marginalization by the NBA President at the 2023 Annual General Conference. Her allegations at the conference led to a can of worms and brick bats between the NBA Presidency and several National Officers.

The NBA-NEC meeting is coming on the heels of a CITY LAWYER report where the NBA Third Vice President Mandy Asagba stated that the committee had not met for months.