Legal luminary and Chairman of Body of Benchers (BoB), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has said that he was angry with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
Olanipekun, in a chat with Sunday Vanguard, said he would not understand why the President of the NBA, Mr Olumide Akpata, would write him a letter requesting him to step down as Chairman of BoB and circulate same document on social media without serving him a copy more than 24 hours after same had been released to the public.
BOB is a professional body concerned with the admission of prospective students into the Nigerian Law School, NLS. Members of the body are called Benchers.
The body also regulates the call of graduates of the NLS to the Nigerian Bar as well as the regulation of the legal profession.
Olanipekun, a one-time President of the NBA, said it appeared there was an ulterior motive behind the action of the NBA President.
“As we talk, I am yet to get a copy of the letter. People have been calling me but I can’t react to a document that I have not seen”, he stressed.
The letter by Akpata had asked Olanipekun to step down as the BoB Chairman over an allegation of misconduct which affected a female lawyer, Ms. Adekunbi Ogunde, a partner at Wole Olanipekun & Co. Chambers.
Sunday Vanguard reports that Ogunde had sent an email to Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd soliciting a brief after the Rivers State government preferred charges against the company over allegations of $130million fraud.
