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- NBA Treasurer appears to have been sidelined
On Tuesday 29th of August, 2023 TheNiche reporter —Jeffrey Agbo in a report re-published by Law & Society Magazine revealed that stakeholders within the Annual General Conference Planning Committee (AGCCPC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) were dissatisfied with the spending of N700 million in procuring conference bags, a customary feature of the AGC.
The report disclosed that the committee reportedly entered into an agreement to procure over 18,000 conference bags at a cost of about N334,800,000 (nearly $372,000).
Read Here: NBA AGC 2023: Stakeholders raise alarm over AGCCPC N700m expenditure on conference bags
As more and more stories from the NBA 700 million scandal unfolds, our sources confirmed that the Treasurer of the Association seems not to be aware of many financial details of the Association.
Our sources have it that the Treasurer’s core mandates of vetting, recommending and endorsing all financial memos have been fully hijacked by the President and General Secretary against several reports and official complaints from the Treasurer.
It was further revealed by one of our sources that just recently the President on 15th August, 2023 at the National Officers Meeting while responding to one out of the numerous complaints from the Treasurer stated unequivocally that “he does not require the Treasurer’s consent neither does he need to consult with her to take any financial decisions for the Association.”
Mr. President in citing Section 23(1)(c) of the Constitution of the NBA had argued that the Constitution gives him the right to use either the Secretary or Treasurer of the Association and if he chooses to use the Secretary alone to sign financial memos, how has he usurped the Treasurer’s mandate?
He was reported to have challenged the Treasurer to show him how he hijacked the finances of the Association and once that is done he is willing to apologise.
It remains a mystery that nobody has come out to respond to these weighty allegations on the part of the three principal members including the one made in the report published by TheNiche which indicted the current Chairman of the AGCCPC Mazi Afam Osigwe SAN.
It is also whispered in some quarters that the NBA National Treasurer is being punished for not being the choice candidate of the Cabal, and for her stringent, unpopular Constitutional views which challenges wrongdoings in the Secretariat and the Bar, her reports are doctored and presented to her to only append her signature.
According to our sources, in the past, the Treasurer seems to have stood her ground above board boldly speaking against many financial infractions.
Our sources also have it that members of staff of the Association received their allowance for the month of March, 2023 (Kebbi – NEC) from the Bank account of a fellow staff of the NBA.
The source equally claimed that the records of a donation of $50,000 (Fifty Thousand US Dollars), amongst other donations made to the Association is presently under contention.
Questions are also being asked whether some of the President’s aides and relatives double as staff of the Association.
