The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Olumide Akpata has berated lawyers who stormed the Accreditation Centre and carted away conference bags and other items.
Akpata, who was delivering an apology for his lateness to the President’s Dinner on Tuesday night as one of the highlights of the ongoing NBA Annual General Conference, expressed his disgust over the behaviour of the conferees over the issue.
Akpata apologised to guests at the dinner for his late arrival, explaining that he was held up by the chaos that broke out yesterday evening over delivery of conference bags.
To buttress the matter, the NBA Akpata President beamed a clip of the riot on the wide screen.
He said: “It is a sad commentary. But this is really who we are. We must not delude ourselves. We are as good as our weakest link.”
He noted that the Technical Committee on Conference Planning (TCCP) had explained that it insisted on top quality bags for the conferees, leading to its rejection of the low quality bags supplied by the vendor.
He wondered why the conferees would not exercise patience, more so when the quality bags had been supplied.
On Tuesday, the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning (TCCP) Tobenna Erojikwe had in an update to conferees explained that the committee had rejected the bags because they did not meet the agreed standards.
Erokjikwe had pleaded with his professional colleagues to exercise patience, promising that they would all get quality bags. would all get quality bags.
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NBA and Conference materials
As you may already know, the registration center for the collection of materials by delegates at the ongoing Annual General Conference was broken into, vandalised, and looted by some delegates last night with most of the conference materials carted away and lawyers/registration officers injured.
Whilst we acknowledge and regret that there were lapses in the distribution process, last night’s incident was a national embarrassment as some of our members conducted themselves in a most despicable manner not expected of members of the profession.
We cannot afford to risk the lives and safety of our members, colleagues and contractors at the conference venue on account of collection of materials. I have therefore met with the leadership of the TCCP, and a decision has been taken for the destroyed registration center at the conference village to be shut down and it is now being shut down. However, alternative arrangements have been made for the collection of materials by delegates. The new collection center is the BWC Hotel that is located opposite the Eko Atlantic. This new collection center is smaller than the previous one (which is now unusable) and as a result, access to it for collection of materials would be controlled in the following manner:
Collection of materials will commence at 2pm today (Wednesday 24 August, 2022) at the BWC Hotel.
Delegates will be admitted into the collection center in batches of 80 at a time.
Delegates are expected to be seated (or to provide their details) in Breakout Room D at the Eko Atlantic pending when they are called, or sent a text message, to come to the collection center to pick up their materials.
We assure you that every delegate would get his or her materials and therefore encourage our members to cooperate with the registration officers in this process so as to avoid a repeat of last night’s ugly incident.
Many thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
OLUMIDE AKPATA,
NBA President
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