Adesina Ademola Ogunlana ( 1964-2024)

By Taiwo Adedeji Esq

STRUGGLE WAS HIS LIFE. PART 2.
In this concluding part of my short tribute to the iconic Adesina Aluta Ogunlana I am starting from where I ended the first part. I intend to later merge the two parts for ease of reading.

BATTLES AGAINST THE CLAMPDOWN ON ” THE LEARNED SQUIB”
It was the turbulent days in the life of Ogunlana as a Legal Practitioner and anti corruption activist. Hon. Justice Sotuminu had issued a directive banning Squib magazine from the premises of all the courts in Lagos State. Ogunlana defied the ‘ban’ . Myself and Ogunlana went to meet the then Chief Registrar of the High Court of Lagos State, Mrs Toyin Taiwo( later Hon. Justice Toyin Taiwo) .

The purpose of our meeting was to clarify from her if the directive banning the circulation of Squib magazine was truly issued by the Chief Judge. The otherwise pleasant Mrs Taiwo confirmed that the directive was from the Chief Judge. Ogunlana immediately told the woman that the unconstitutional directive will not stand.

Immediately, we instructed our administrative team to continue to distribute the magazine to lawyers. The Justice Sotuminu led judicial authorities decided to react violently. The Chief Security officer, one Hassan Gunok was leading the physical assaults on our staff( young boys and girls).
On a particular day, we were at the Ikeja High Court where Ogunlana was to lead me in a court appearance when we received a call that our staff who were at the Lagos High Court, Igboosere were being attacked by security men enforcing the illegal banning of the Squib Magazine.
Ogunlana immediately race down to Igboosere, living me to handle the Ikeja High Court case and to monitor our staff at Ikeja. I was inside the court room at Ikeja when I was informed by a colleague that one of our staff, Miss Funmi Mendes was arrested by a security staff of the Lagos state judiciary.

I went out to confront the security man who told me he was only carrying out a directive. I told him Funmi was an ordinary staff that he should tell his boss to rather come for me. A senior colleague, Chief Victor Kolade came out of the court room to intervene. Two other lawyers came in and we ensured that the innocent young girl was immediately released.
I took the copies of the Squib Magazine from Funmi and started giving it out to lawyers. Some of our enthusiastic colleagues bought copies with solidarity price. I was waiting for a daring security agent to come after me. It was during this time that I sighted the legendary Chief GOK Ajayi(SAN) I went to the old man to inform him about the situation on ground.
Chief Ajayi was a supporter and adopted father to Ogunlana. Baba Ajayi told me that I should be calm, that nothing would happen, but that I should tell Ogunlana to see him .
The battle continued for days. when the Chief Judge Sotuminu found out that the private security contractors engaged within the High Court premises were unable to effectively enforce the draconian directive, men of the Nigerian police from the Lagos State Command were brought in.
Arrests were made regularly. Volunteers selling the magazines were arrested and charged to court for “conduct likely to cause the breach of peace”. No person slept in police custody. A pressure group within the Nigerian Bar Association, the Progressive Bar Forum( PBF) stepped in to give solidarity support to the battles. Ogunlana’s friend, Mr Adejare Kembi was always on ground to make legal representations.

Elders like Chief GOK Ajayi(SAN) and Chief Gani Fawehinmi(SAN, SAM) were also playing their advisory roles. Ogunlana and Squib magazine survived the early rounds of assaults.
OGUNLANA BROUGHT BEFORE THE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE(LPDC)
By 2002/2003 , Squib magazine has become more popular beyond the level of Lagos State section of the Legal Profession. It has been embraced by members of the profession based outside Lagos. Notable among Ogunlana and Squib’s supporters outside Lagos was late Oluwarotimi Akeredolu(SAN) , later NBA president, later Governor of Ondo state. Another great supporter was the late Mr Wole Aina, a past Chairman of NBA, Ibadan branch.
After a successful resistance of the directive to stop the circulation of the Squib Magazine, Justice Sotuminu resorted to writing a petition to the LPDC for Ogunlana’s trial for INFAMOUS CONDUCT ! That was the beginning of another round of battles. The prayer of the petitioner was to get Ogunlana out of the legal profession.
The complaint was about the publications in the Squib Magazine which the petitioner considered offensive. Chief GOK Ajayi( SAN) immediately took up the battle by offering his legal services in support of Ogunlana before the LPDC pro bono.
The battle ground has now been shifted to Abuja, where the LPDC sits. Chief Ajayi never missed a sitting. He brought out his rich legal arsenal in aid of Ogunlana. By the rules, NBA is the prosecutor at the LPDC. In Ogunlana’s case, the NBA was now being recruited to lead the assault on press freedom. That in itself constituted some moral dilemmas.
The case drained a lot of resources from Ogunlana and some of us, notwithstanding the fact that Chief Ajayi did everything free of charge. We have to travel to Abuja by flight several times to join the legal team of Chief Ajayi in defence of Ogunlana.

After more than a decade of legal battles, Ogunlana survived.
Here, Chief GOK Ajayi(SAN) Mr Rotimi Akeredolu(SAN) and Mr Wole Aina deserved special posthumous commendation for their support while the battle lasted. Chief Gani Fawehinmi(SAN, SAM) also deserved Honourable mention. He would have led the defence team but since Chief GOK Ajayi was on ground, Gani naturally took the background seat. Chief Ajayi was also the one who defended Chief Fawehinmi during his own travails during Babangida days. Worthy men.

THE BATTLEFIELDS OF NBA POLITICS.
Initially, Ogunlana did not set out to be a bar politician. He was making impact in his growing practice and his anti corruption crusade. His joining the Progressive Bar Forum(PBF) brought him to the bar politics and he later became actively involved. In all the times he sought elections into NBA offices, he won with landslide margins. He was elected as NBA General Secretary for the Ikeja branch in 2010, as Vice Chairman in 2012 and as the Chairman in 2016.
“ANNULMENT” OF HIS ELECTION AS THE NBA IKEJA BRANCH CHAIRMAN.
In the year 2016, Ogunlana was elected by the members of the NBA, Ikeja branch to lead the branch for 2 years. The victory margin was a testimony to his popularity among lawyers. It was however the beginning of another round of battles in his battle filled life. After the election, the national leadership of the NBA under Augustine Alegeh(SAN) took a decision culminating in the annulment of Ogunlana’s election.
The ground of the annulment was a recently passed uniform bye law which Article 6(3) disqualified from contesting any candidate seeking electoral office but who had held two previous offices within the last five years preceding the latest contest.
The law took effect from 2016 but in the wisdom of the NBA powers that be, the law must have a retroactive effect. Some of us contended that by established legal principles, backed by pronouncements of the Supreme Court as well as the International best practice, a law that seeks to penalise for something done in the past cannot apply retroactively.
After the purported annulment of Ogunlana’s election, a sham bye election was conducted which purportedly returned Mr Dele Oloke as NBA Ikeja branch chairman. We resisted the annulment. The majority of the NBA Ikeja branch members expressed solidarity with Ogunlana who was the only one they elected as chairman for the 2016-2018 administration.
The minority backed by the national leadership of the NBA led by Oloke was merely seen on meeting days to distrupt meetings being presided over by Ogunlana. It was obvious who had the mandate. After almost a year of regular interruptions of branch meetings, the new NBA leadership under AB Mahmoud(SAN) decided to intervene to resolve the crisis. It was later resolved in the recognition of Ogunlana’s mandate after Mr Dele Oloke withdrew himself from an election to test the popularity of the two contenders.

THE BATTLES AGAINST THE AMBODE LAND USE CHARGE.
The Lagos state government led by Akin Ambode introduced a toxic Land Use charge policy. The revenue generated driven politics was bound to have an effect of making accommodation beyond the reach of many struggling citizens as it was bound to backlash into prohibitive costs of accommodation. The leaderships of the traditional trade unions were becoming increasingly docile and unresponsive to the outcry of the masses.
Ogunlana mobilised the bar associations in Lagos State to resist the policy. He was offered bribe which he rejected. I am aware of an attempt by an agent of the Lagos State government to induce Ogunlana with a sum of 60 million naira to compromise the struggle. At the end of the day, the government of Ambode was forced to backdown on the draconian policy.
OTHER NOTABLE PERSONAL BATTLES.
It should take a book to do a detailed chronicle of the life battles of the irrepressible iconic Adesina Ogunlana.
He faced the vicissitudes of life with calmness and doggedly.

ENCOUNTERS WITH ARMED ROBBERS.
On a number of occasions, he was attacked by armed robbers and other strange attackers. On one occasion, Mr Ogunlana , Adenike Ayileka(née Adewusi) and myself were coming from the office of Chief Gani Fawehinmi( SAN) . We were inside Ogunlana’s Mazda 626 on top of the Anthony Oke bridge when the car suddenly stopped due to an electrical fault. It was dark in the evening. We were immediately surrounded by armed robbers.
I was the first person to be attacked by the robbers who forcefully took my phone from me which I instinctively(almost recklessly) retrieved from the robbers. Ogunlana immediately came out of the vehicle telling the robbers to relax that he was ready to cooperate and that they should take money without inflicting harm on us. The robbers almost acting as Zombies immediately faced Ogunlana and took all the money on him without coming to my direction again. None of them even made attempt to attack our precious Adenike, a beautiful young lady lawyer , my junior colleague in Ogunlana’s Chambers.
The second encounter with armed robbers was inside the Chambers at 197 Ikorodu Road, Palm Grove. We used to work late. On that day, Taiwo Akinlami , my friend and one of Ogunlana’s trusted associates from the LASU days came visiting. The gunmen took advantage of one of our staff entering the office from an errand. We thought they were hired assassins. A day before, Mr Ogunlana received a death threat from the mother of a Magistrate whose appointment was terminated by the Oyo state government based on the Squib Magazine’s exposure of his antecedents.
The Magistrate was previously dismissed for corruption as a junior Magistrate in Lagos. Ogunlana stumbled on an event in Ibadan Oyo state where the same dismissed Magistrate was being sworn in as a Chief Magistrate in Oyo state. The news was carried by the Squib Magazine and the Oyo state government immediately relieved the man of his appointment after investigating his antecedents as an awfully corrupt Magistrate.
The mother of the dismissed Magistrate called Ogunlana on phone and told him he had only seven days to live. Though, the threat sounded more as a threat of spiritual attack which we didn’t take serious, when the gunmen suddenly invaded our office, we thought it was the threat being carried out. We escaped through the exit door. Myself and Nike lost our phones while Taiwo Akinlami escaped with his Motorola phone.
Many were the afflictions of Adesina Ogunlana . In all, he faced everything with uncommon courage and fortitude.

I refrain myself from going into his recent travails in respect of his political trial on totally unfounded allegation of corruption. The case is still in court. Out of the three colleagues charged, two of them in egbon Yinka Farounbi and Ogunlana have embarked on the journey of no return. History is sure to absolve them . One person Mrs Aderinola Kappo is still in the Dock. For this reason, I refrain from further now.
Adesina Ogunlana now belongs to the ages. I hope to be alive to join in giving a befitting funeral to this worthy fellow come September 11th and 12th .