Afe Babalola: I have trained over 1,000 lawyers, produced 23 SANs

A legal icon, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), has disclosed that he has trained over 1,000 lawyers out of which 23 have become Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SANs) to strengthen the legal profession in the country.

Babalola added that in his almost six decades of legal practice, he had trained lawyers who have become Federal Attorneys-General, High Court Judges and Justices of the Appellate Courts.

He stated this in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, yesterday in a statement made available to journalists by the Director, Corporate Affairs of the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Mr. Tunde Olofintila, where he announced the date for the Annual Aware Are Babalola public lecture organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ado Ekiti branch, to honour the legal luminary.

The statement noted that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, will on May 4, 2021, chair the 10th annual public lecture to garland Babalola for his contributions to the legal profession.

Speaking on the impending lecture, the founder of ABUAD said his love for legal profession had also spurred him to publish six major law books which he said have enriched law practice in the country.

The books, according to Babalola, are: ‘Injunctions and Enforcement of Orders (the only authoritative book on the important subject)’; ‘Law and Practice of Evidence in Nigeria’; Enforcement of Judgment, Election Law and Practice in Nigeria, the leading authority on the subject in the country widely used by Judges, lawyers and politicians throughout the country.

Others are ‘University Administration in Nigeria, a book presented to the Committee of Pro Chancellors in 2005.

He said: The NUC has printed the book for circulation among all university administrators in the country. “Based on his boundless love for his chosen profession, Babalola also built multi-million naira Bar Centres for Ibadan and Ado-Ekiti branches of the NBA.

“At some point in his rich legal career, he lectured at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of Lagos, and at the Postgraduate School, University of Ibadan, as well as the Centre for African Law and Development Studies,” the statement said.