Olumide Akpata, the outgoing president of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), has said that any lawyer found complicit in the vandalisation of conference booths, theft of phones, and assault on officials will be prosecuted.
Akpata who stated this on Thursday, during the ongoing Annual General Conference, explained the circumstances that surrounded the delayed distribution of conference bags during the event.
“No one said we will not encounter difficulties in life but the hall mark is how quickly do we resolve such difficulties,” he said.
“Gentlemen of the Bar, I thank you so much. It can only get better.”
In a viral video on Wednesday, lawyers were seen destroying conference booths and looting conference materials on Tuesday night.
Lawyers attending the ongoing 62nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association had on Tuesday protested over the inadequate supply of conference materials, as some of them could not get the conference bag which they had paid for.
Some of the Lawyers decried the unavailability of conference materials despite coming to the accreditation center frequently, and this, according to many delegates, was frustrating them.
However, the distribution process was slow despite a large number of lawyers being on the queue waiting for their bags.
The lawyers later became impatient and they led a charge which even the bouncers couldn’t hold off, and the accreditation center not only became overcrowded, but was destroyed and vandalised with lawyers looting and carting away Conference materials.
The Lawyers and Delegates at the NBA-AGC went berserk over the distribution of conference bags, destroying registration booths and looting other Conference materials.