The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, has expressed regret over the looting of collection centre conference materials by lawyers at the on-going Annual General Conference (AGC) of the association.
Akpata stated this in a press statement issued at the venue of the conference, titled: “Collection of Conference Materials”.
While acknowledging and expressing regret that there were lapses in the distribution process, he maintained that Tuesday’s night’s incident was “a national embarrassment, noting that members of the association behaved in a “most despicable manner not expected of members of the profession”.
According to him, “The registration centre for the collection of materials by delegates at the on-going Annual General Conference was broken into, vandalised, and looted by some delegates last night, with most of the conference materials carted away and lawyers/registration officers injured”. He also lamented the attack on registration officers at the event.
Owing to the development, the NBA President relocated the conference materials collection centre. He said collection of materials would commence at 2 pm yesterday, at the BWC Hotel, located opposite the Eko Atlantic, and that delegates will be admitted into the collection centre in batches of eighty at a time. He added that delegates are expected to be seated (or to provide their details) in Breakout Room-D at the Eko Atlantic, pending when they are called, or sent a text message, to come to the collection centre to pick up their materials.
He assured that every delegate would get his or her materials, and therefore encouraged members to cooperate with the registration officers in this process so as to avoid a repeat of Tuesday night’s ugly incident.
