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The battle between Honeywell and Ecobank still rages on. While the 2 brands are in court on the matter over a business relationship gone sour, another dimension came up in the case, which led to another battle on the side which is also going on simultaneously, as the main battle is also ongoing. That battle is what brought about the title of this particular write-up above.
Mr. Kunle Ogunba, until not too long ago an S.A.N (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) a very privileged title given to lawyers who have excelled greatly in their profession and have gotten to the pinnacle and are supposed to be exemplary, is the very influential counsel for the other party, that is Ecobank and in the course of fighting on behalf of his client, some rather very unfortunate things came up, which led to petitions filed by the Honeywell Group at both the LPPC (Legal Practitioners Privileges Council and the NBA seeking some sort of redresses for some professional conducts that are thought not to be as exemplary as expected from someone as learned as Mr. Ogunba.
While the LPPC gave its own response not too long after, to the petition instituted by the Honeywell group, by withdrawing the highly revered title of 'SAN' given Mr. Ogunba, an unprecedented decision at that, nothing in the past close to 2 years, has been heard "officially" from the NBA the other body so petitioned, which is the umbrella body for all legal practitioners in Nigeria, who are also the statutory body that normally should seek to regulate the activities and excesses of all legal practitioners (lawyers) in Nigeria, if the need arises at anytime.
NBA and Self-Regulation.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is one of the leading professional bodies in Nigeria. As the umbrella association of lawyers, the NBA is also a major stakeholder in the Nigerian judicial system. But more importantly, NBA, similar to leading professional bodies in the world, harbours a self-regulatory mechanism to promote ethics among practitioners.
According to the sixth core objective of the association, the body is responsible for: “Maintenance of the highest standards of professional conduct, etiquette and discipline among lawyers”. One will even be justified to conclude that the NBA is very particular about standards and integrity as it is clearly stated on its website that: “The NBA offers a unique National platform that is not available to any other Civil or professional organization in Nigeria.”
However, a recent development is threathening the NBA’s famed strict adherence to high standards. At least, this is the direction that the unfolding drama of the reported clearance of Lagos lawyer, Mr. Kunle Ogunba by the NBA seems to be taking.
MORE AFTER THE BREAK!
