Alegeh challenges removal as Chairman of Appointments Committee of the Body of Benchers
A fresh trouble is currently brewing at the Body of Benchers (BoB) Nigeria’s highest body in the legal profession, as a former President of Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), Augustine Oyarekhua Alegeh SAN, has dragged the body and it’s current Chairman, Chief Solomon Adegboyega Awomolo SAN before a Federal High Court in Lagos over his removal as the Chairman of the Appointments Committee of BoB.
Already, the trial judge, Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa has granted an interim order restraining the body and Awomolo from removing Alegeh as Chairman of the Appointments Committee pending the determination of the suit. The order leg of Alegeh’s ex-parte application, that is, restraining Awomolo from acting as Chairman of BoB was refused by the judge, saying it will be considered at the interlocutory stage.
Alegeh approached the court with an originating summons, seeking to determine whether the Chairman of BoB can unilaterally decide to remove him as Chairman of Appointments Committee before the end of his tenure.
He also asked the court to determine the following issues:
Whether having regard to the clear, lucid, and unambiguous of regulation 11(6) of the Body of Benchers regulations, made pursuant to Section 3(5) of the Legal Practitioners Act 2014(as amended) the first defendant can unilaterally and in breach of the said Benchers Regulations, alter, shorten/or reduce the tenure of committee members of the second defendant from three years to two years;
Whether having regards to the Body of Benchers Regulations 2014, the first defendant can unilaterally and in breach of the regulations alter and rename the Standing Committees of the second defendant listed and set out in the Body of Benchers Regulations 2024.
In a 50 paragraph affidavit deposed to by Alegeh in support of the originating summons, he accused Awomolo of acting in bad faith by removing him as Chairman , Appointments Committee, a position to which he was appointed by a former Chairman, Justice Mary Odili on March 28, 2024, and gave the same appointment to another senior lawyer, Prof Yusuf Ali, SAN.
Awomolo, according to him, was exerting his pound of flesh because of his refusal to recognise him(Awomolo) as a past president while he (Alegeh) was president of the NBA. “When I became NBA President in 2014, the first respondent approached me and requested me to recognise as a past president on the basis of his claim that during the time of the interregnum of the bar in 1991, he was the chairman of the Committee of Chairmen that presided over the affairs of the bar. I informed the first defendant that I will discuss the matter with past presidents and the National Executive Committee (NEC). Upon consultations with past presidents, I discovered that during the said period, he was not a Chairman of any branch. The bar couldn’t have had a president during the period of interregnum;
Alegeh said Awomolo made the same request in 2020 during the heated campaign for NBA presidency between Olumide Akpata and Dele Adesina SAN. He averred that Awomolo requested him to talk to Akpata on his behalf because of his closeness to the latter. In the heat of campaigns for the NBA Presidency in 2020, I was yet again approached by the first defendant who informed me that he would deliver a political masterstroke which will guarantee Olumide Akpata’s victory at the polls;
I dismissed his statement at the material time because I considered him to be an elder of the Egbe Amofin group which had already endorsed Dele Adesina SAN as their preferred candidate in the election. I told the first defendant of Adesina’s endorsement by Egbe Amofin but he dismissed it as he stated that he was not in support of Adesina’s candidacy as he(Adesina) was Chief Wole Olanipekun’s stooge and would not be able to perform creditably in office;
Few weeks into the conduct of the NBA elections, the first defendant authored a letter in which he claimed that the Presidency of the NBA be ceded and reserved exclusively for SANs. Following Akpata’s emergence as President of NBA, the first defendant again approached me to convince Akpata to recognise him as a past president. He stated that his letter was the masterstroke that delivered victory to Akpata at the polls and that I should put pressure on him to grant his request.
Alegeh further accused Awomolo of attempting to bring his wife into the Body of Benchers, a move which has been roundly rejected by Benchers.
“I firmly believe that the above-mentioned facts collectively constitute the basis for the malice and bad faith being exhibited by the first defendant against me and which has led the first defendant’s unlawful and illegal move to remove me as second defendant’s Chairman of Appointments Committee.
Justice Lewis-Allagoa has fixed July 8, 2024 for the hearing of the Motion on Notice.
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