Vocal Human Rights Activist and Former Member of the Electoral Committee of the NBA, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu has dismissed the response of the NBA President, Yakubu Maikyau SAN OON to his letter of resignation from the NBA’s Electoral Committee.

Recall that on Monday, 10th July, the former National Human Rights Commission Chair, announced his resignation from the ECNBA in a letter directed to the NBA President and made available to the press. Odinkalu in the said letter cited the failure of the NBA to honour its contractual obligations to companies who provided services during last year’s NBA elections and concerns over the integrity of data to be used in next year’s election as reasons for his resignation.

However, in a response to his resignation, the NBA President, while thanking him for his service to the Association, stated that the NBA would not be hurried to skip its internal mechanisms for verifying claims and honoring its obligations. He affirmed that the NBA remains a responsible organization.

The letter signed by the NBA President and dated 14th of July, 2023 reads; “I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 10 July 2023 on the above subject. Your resignation from the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) will be duly communicated to the National Executive Council (NEC). In the meantime, I thank you for your selfless service to the Bar and wish you success and God’s blessings in all your endeavours.

Please note that the Nigerian Bar Association, which I am privileged to lead at this time and of which you are member, remains a responsible organisation and will always honour its financial and contractual obligations. I will however not allow any person or group of persons to stampede us or in any way blackmail us into compromising our internal mechanisms, put in place for verifying claims or requests before payments are made. Our commonwealth, which I hold in trust, will to the best of our ability be administered in the best interest of the Association.

I thank you once more for your selfless service and commitment to the Bar.

Please accept the assurances of my esteemed professional regards.”

In a LinkedIn post cited by TheNigeriaLawyer this afternoon, Odinkalu insisted on the NBA’s failure to honour its obligations to the providers of the election services. He wrote, “4 days ago, I informed the President of the #Nigerian Bar Association, @nigbarassoc, of my decision to resign from the Electoral Committee of the #NBA. I did not take that decision lightly. In July 2022, we organized the ballot to into offices in the NBA. This is July 2023 & the NBA has refused to pay the providers of the election services. The NBA is a billionaire organization. The NBA has not complained about the services provided for its elections. But the NBA has chosen not to honour its obligations. The fuller facts & their implications for the credibility of the NBA’s elections are contained in my letter of resignation. The president of the NBA wants the world to believe that asking the NBA to honour its obligations more than 1 year later for services already received amounts to “stampeding” the Association. 1 positive thing in his letter: the president of the NBA does not controvert anything in my letter of resignation. Read the letters & make up your minds.??????”