NBA frowns at Maina’s appointment as branch patron
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has flayed the purported appointment of a former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, as the patron of the Garki, Abuja branch of the association.
The chairman of the branch, Anthony Bamidele Ojo, had reportedly announced Maina as the grand patron shortly after being released from the correctional centre in Kuje on an eight-year sentence, having been convicted of diverting the sum of N2 billion pension funds.
In a statement on Friday, the NBA president, Mazi Afam Osigwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), directed Ojo to immediately withdraw any purported appointment of Mr Maina as a patron of the branch and to forthwith desist from issuing statements, comments or representations on his behalf or in support.
Osigwe said the purported appointment not only painted the legal profession and the NBA in a bad light but also made a mockery of government’s fight against corruption, as well as the association’s motto of promoting the rule of law.
“Equally reprehensible was the decision of the chairman to make comments about Abdulrasheed Maina’s appeal, currently believed to be pending at the Supreme Court.
“While the NBA respects Mr Maina’s right to exhaust his right to appeal against the conviction, the Bar will not, under any guise, comment on such an appeal or be seen to try to sway public opinion in his favour.
