Some lawyers attending the ongoing 62nd annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) last night went on a rampage, destroying registration booths and conference bags at the venue of the meeting.
Eighteen-Eleven Media gathered that the lawyers and delegates took the condemnable route at the Eko Atlantic City, the venue of the ongoing General Conference NBA-AGC, following dissatisfaction with the distribution of conference bags and materials.
According to reports, the lawyers had gathered to collect conference bags which had hindered them from collecting other conference materials.
They however became impatient over the alleged slow pace at which they were being attended to. Some of them reportedly forcefully reached out to get the bags containing the conference materials and this led to chaos that saw the registration booths being destroyed.
Meanwhile, reacting to the ugly incident, the outgoing President of the association Olumide Akpata described it as a “national embarrassment”.
In a statement he signed and made available to Eighteen-Eleven Media Wednesday, Mr Akpata said some of the members conducted themselves “in a most despicable manner not expected of members of the profession.”
His Full Statement
Dear Colleagues,
COLLECTION OF CONFERENCE MATERIALS
As you may already know, the registration centre for the collection of materials by delegates at the ongoing Annual General Conference was broken into, vandalised, and looted by some delegates last night with most of the conference materials carted away and lawyers/registration officers injured.
Whilst we acknowledge and regret that there were lapses in the distribution process, last night’s incident was a national embarrassment as some of our members conducted themselves in a most despicable manner not expected of members of the profession.
We cannot afford to risk the lives and safety of our members, colleagues and contractors at the conference venue on account of collection of materials. I have therefore met with the leadership of the TCCP, and a decision has been taken for the destroyed registration centre at the conference village to be shut down and it is now being shut down. However, alternative arrangements have been made for the collection of materials by delegates. The new collection centre is the BWC Hotel which is located opposite the Eko Atlantic. This new collection centre is smaller than the previous one (which is now unusable) and as a result, access to it for collection of materials would be controlled in the following manner:
- Collection of materials will commence at 2 pm today (Wednesday 24 August 2022) at the BWC Hotel.
- Delegates will be admitted into the collection centre in batches of 80 at a time.
- Delegates are expected to be seated (or to provide their details) in Breakout Room D at the Eko Atlantic pending when they are called, or sent a text message, to come to the collection centre to pick up their materials.
We assure you that every delegate would get his or her materials and therefore encourage our members to cooperate with the registration officers in this process so as to avoid a repeat of last night’s ugly incident.
Many thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
OLUMIDE AKPATA
NBA President
24 August 2022