The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference Incident Investigation Committee set up to investigate the vandalization and looting of the accreditation center and conference materials during the 62nd Annual General Conference in Lagos, has identified 12 persons who were shown to have actively participated in the disturbances.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olawale Fapohunda made this known when he submitted the 50 paged final report of the committee at the meeting of the National Executive Council, NEC of the NBA which held in Birrin Kebbi, Kebbi State from the 22nd to the 24th of March, 2023.
Fapohunda in his presentation, said while there cannot be any possible justification for the unruly conduct of any member of the NBA, a key finding of the Committee is that the delay in the delivery of Conference Bags to the NBA and the consequential inability of the NBA to hand over bags to a large number of conferees were mainly responsible for the disturbances during the Conference.
While not ruling out outside interference, the committee also found that some lawyers were responsible for the disturbances.
He said the conduct of those members involved brought shame and embarrassment to the NBA specifically and the legal profession generally.
The Learned Silk further stated that the Committee found that the decision of the NBA to engage Antochie Limited as the supplier of the Conference bags, was “a fundamental error”, as the limited due diligence that was undertaken before the engagement of the company was at best ineffective.
A part of the committeee report says “the apparent mis-understanding between the NBA and Antochie Limited, of the terms, conditions, duties and responsibilities of both parties to the contract and that this was an important contributory factor to the disturbance”.
In addition, the committee found that Antochie Limited was not honest in its dealings with the NBA. It described the company’s relationship with the NBA as characterized with inconsistencies, contradictions and bad faith. “At the first day of the conference, Friday 19th August, 2022 Anthoche Limited delivered 5,346 units of bags as against 13000 units ordered from the company.”
“There was also limited security arrangement for the AGC in terms of personnel and surveillance cameras as the Technical Conference Committee Planning, TCCP did not envisage the possibility of disorderly behaviour and therefore had no contingency plan to deal with same”.
The event company employed by the TCCP, Eventful Limited underestimated the security arrangements required for a conference of the magnitude of the NBA AGC. “ Its security arrangements was inadequate and had no interface with mainstream security outfits, viz. the Nigeria Police Force and sister agencies. They had no crisis management plan including training of staff in handling crisis situation”.
In its recommendations, Fapohunda said there is now “an urgent need for the NBA to take practical steps including continuous awareness to reverse the culture that attaches priority to conference bags over and above working sessions of AGC”.
“Indeed it may now be necessary to determine whether the amount spent on procurement of conference bags should not be used to develop the content and quality of working sessions of the Annual General Conference”, the report said.
The report also recommended that the NBA secretariat staff must play a central role in the organization and delivery of future AGCs. The vision must be to achieve an ideal where all NBA Conferences and activities are delivered by its staff.
The committee made this recommendation because it found evidence of over-concentration of powers in the TCCP without accommodating or delineating responsibilities to other stakeholders such as NBA Staff, Branch Chairmen, etc.
On the Identification of persons responsible for vandalization and looting, Fapohunda stated that his committee regrets the non-cooperation of members of the Bar particularly those who witnessed the vandalization and the looting.
According to him ‘It is indeed a matter of concern that despite several public notices, members refused to come forward with any information that could have assisted the Committee identify those lawyers that brought shame to the legal profession. This lack of cooperation in many ways hindered the work of the Committee and is responsible for delay in submitting this final report’
Fapohunda said that based on independently obtained video recordings, the Committee identified 12 persons who were shown actively leading the march that led to the vandalization and looting of the accreditation center. He said the names and pictures of these persons have been included in the report for the further determination of appropriate next steps by the NBA National Executive Council.
The committee also recommended that going forward, the NBA should create a comprehensive database of members with photographs and contact details, for security purposes and proper identification.
