The crisis rocking the South West Lawyers forum(Egbe Amofin Odua), which ia a unified body of yoruba lawyers in the South West, deepened yesterday as the Mrs Priscilla Kuye (SAN)-led screening committee of the forum was unable to come up with the much expected consensus candidate for the zone.
Addressing journalists shortly after the four hours meeting, Kuye explained that the committee made up of chairmen of the 25 branches within the zone, decided to stay action on recommending any candidate while agreeing to report back to the larger house.
She said the decision was taken due to six petitions written against the committee, which she regretted, contained allegations too weighty to be ignored.
The Nation gathered that wo of the contenders, Mrs Funke Adekoya(SAN) and Niyi Akintola (SAN)had on friday announced that they would no more subject themselves to the committee, stressing that the committee had been compromised.
Adekoya had alleged that some of the committee members, especially some of the branch chairmen had been financially induced to favour a particular candidate, while Akintola had said: “a situation where a senior member of the bar is being screened by a legal practitioner with less than 5 years post call experience simply because he/she is a branch chairman is unacceptable to me”
Although some branch chairmen present at the meeting of the screening committee yesterday were disatisfied with the houses refusal to simply “adopt Dele Adesina (SAN) who had been “humble” and “respectful” to the committee, Kuye maintained that such action would jeopardise the unity of the forum.
“We received six petitions, two from Adekoya and Akintola and four each from Okitipupa, Badagry, Ikorodu and Ogbomoso branches. While some of the branches say their chairmen do not have their mandate the two contestants allege financial inducement and inelligibility of some committee members to screen them on the basis that they are too young”
“This allegations are weighty and capable of dividing the group. We would be further splitting the Egbe if we just go ahead and screen one candidate. Let’s understand that the unity and integrity if the Egbe is at stake”she said
Kuye went further that there was need to look into the allegations levelled against her committee which included financial inducement.
“Why would a lawyer of my calibre, with all the long years of reputation I have built over the years will not allow my name to be soiled in the face of such weighty allegations” she said.
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