In its bid to enlarge the Nigerian justice system by taking justice to the doorsteps of both the rich and the poor, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ondo branch, has unveiled the town-and-gown interface initiative.
The NBA popularly known as Ondo City Bar has also announced plans to raise the bar of a virile law practice in memory of world-class “stormy petrel of litigation’’, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria in old Ondo State (now Ondo and Ekiti States), the late Chief Frank Akinrele, who hailed from the city.
The Bar Chairman, Mr Thompson Akinyemi, announced the initiatives after been elected by lawyers to run the affairs of the association in the next three years.
Other elected officers are Mr Anthony Olagundoye (General Secretary), Ms. Omowumi Akinrintan (Treasurer), E.D. Akpala, (Financial Secretary), Sunkanmi Adedeji (Welfare Officer) and Ms. Nonso Onyekwelu (Social Secretary).
Also on board is Mr McNezer Fasehun, former Editor of Prime People Magazine, poet, literary theorist, university lecturer, politician and environmentalist, to manage the image of the Bar.
Akinyemi recalled that countless indigenes had done “exceptionally well and had graduated into the bar of the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of New York.”
“So we believe there is no order too tall for the Ondo City Bar.
“Essentially, the Ondo Branch of the NBA would ensure there are both town-and-gown interface in the Nigerian legal system through concrete scholarly research that would involve the Bar and our immediate university communities, as well as enlarge the Nigerian justice system by taking justice to the doorsteps of all and sundry, rich or poor, mighty or lowly.
“Our ambition is to situate our branch on the map of global practice to the end that humanity would find justice anywhere on our Blue Planet,’’ he said in a statement emailed to Persecondnews.
“Awareness regarding the instruments of justice like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights ( Ratification and Enforcements), and the Construction of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, CFRN, would be brought to bear in the enlightenment of our community.
“We shall, significantly, ensure that both civil and criminal justice systems are used to engineer a better society, even as we shall carry the Nigerian Police and all law enforcement agencies along,’’ he said.
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