NBA Treasurer disowns financial statement, calls out Maikyau during AGM
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Some executive officers of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have accused their President, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, of running a one-man show.
At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the NBA which took place in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday, the executive officers took turns to detail how Maikyau sidelined them in the affairs of the association.
NBA National Treasurer, Caroline Anze-Bishop, disowned the presented financial statement, saying it was prepared without her input.
Anze-Bishop refused to adopt the financial report, saying she respects the Bar too much to sign off on unknown accounts.
She said even as the Association’s National Treasurer, she is sidelined in financial dealings of the body, hence, would not sign off on the strange report.
In his report to lawyers, 2nd Vice President Chukwuemeka Clement Ugo lamented being sidelined too by Maikyau despite his constitutional duties as acting president when the president was unavailable.
Ugo pleaded for empowerment of his office at the AGM, regarded as the NBA’s highest decision-making body.
Likewise, 3rd Vice President Mandy Asagba accused Maikyau of disregarding her office and enacting deliberate measures to render her position redundant. Asagba claimed the entire AGM and Annual General Conference planning excluded national officers.
The criminalities that happen within the Judiciary is very alarming.
— SERAH IBRAHIM (@TheSerahIbrahim) September 1, 2023
A whole NBA that should stand against rascalities are the ones perpetrating them.
If the executives of the Nigerian Bar Association are CRIMINALS, how do we expect them not to assist a CRIMINAL to be President.… pic.twitter.com/p336Gfc7Vb
This has been and Annual General Conference bedeviled by crisis.
TheNiche had earlier reported that stakeholders raised eyebrows over what they described as financial missteps by the Annual General Conference Planning Committee (AGCCPC) of the NBA.
The AGCCPC is a committee led by Afam Osigwe (SAN) and is tasked with shepherding the Annual General Conference (AGC) which began on August 25 and is expected to last till September 1.
Reliable sources within the AGCCPC voiced deep misgivings to TheNiche on Tuesday over the lack of fiscal prudence and forward-thinking in the committee’s financial actions.
The sources knocked the committee for spending N700 million in procuring conference bags, a customary feature of the AGC.
The committee is reported to have entered into an agreement to procure over 18,000 conference bags at a cost of about N334,800,000 (nearly $372,000).
The amount earmarked for procuring bags for the conference is said to be far in excess of the sum budgeted and approved by the NBA National Executive Council.
