President-elect of the Nigeria Bar Association(NBA), Olumide Akpata described his election as a victory for young lawyers.
Akpata emerged winner of the NBA presidential poll conducted electronically between 11pm on Wednesday and 11pm on Thursday.
“It is for the progressive senior lawyers who refused to accept the status quo and took firm steps to ensure that things are done better,” the statement reads.
In the statement issued Friday, 31st July 2020, the President- elect of the NBA also assured that his administration will create the enabling environment for equal treatment of all category of legal practitioners.
“It is for the corporate counsel, law officers , law teachers, the police and military lawyers, and lawyers in all components of the profession who for long have been treated as unequal members of an Association that ought to be the umbrella body for all legal practitioners,” Akpata disclosed in a statement on Friday, floated on his Twitter page.
Akpata had emerged the president of the Nigeria Bar Association(NBA) at the just concluded elections on Thursday, polling 9,891 votes, ahead of Babatunde Ajibade SAN and Dele Adesina SAN who garnered 4,328 votes and 3,982 votes respectively.
Akpata, noted that he would protect the aspirations of young lawyers who feel left behind.
“The victory of last night is for our young lawyers who have become disillusioned with the way the NBA has been run over the years and how the profession appears to be disconnected from the challenges that face them and their future,” he mentioned.
He also lauded seniors lawyers of the profession, who according to him, has been insisting on the best approach for the association.
Furthermore, he extended a right of fellowship to his contenders, Ajibade SAN and Dele Adesina SAN, adding that it was time to join hands and lift the association to greater heights.
Akpata runs a law firm, Templars and has served in various capacities in the NBA.
The statement partly reads in parts:“I also particularly appreciate my friends and learned seniors, Deacon Dele Adesina SAN and Babatunde Ajibade SAN, against whom I had the privilege of contesting for the office of President of the NBA.
“May I assure them that my respect remains intact.
“We must now unite in order to achieve our common goal of revitalizing the Bar and ensuring that our voice is firm and unshaken when we speak.”
