In a brazen show of power, the 1st Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, John Aikpokpo Martins has allegedly suspended the General Secretary of the Association, Madam Joyce Oduah.

An insider source revealed to BarristerNG that a chaotic Virtual meeting of the National Executive Committee Members of the Association was summoned by the Assistant General Secretary, Uchenna Nwadialo where Olumide Akpata, the NBA President, recused himself and handed the anchoring of the meeting over to the 1st Vice President Aikpokpo- Martins.

Both Akpata and Oduah had been enmeshed in a war of attrition, with Oduah accusing Akpata of highhandedness and proclivity to taking unilateral decisions.

The General Secretary queried the legality of the Assistant General Secretary summoning a meeting when she is still in office as the General Secretary and without her authority.  She reminded the EXCO members of the unconstitutionality of the virtual gathering and exited the meeting thereafter.

The Aikpokpo-Martin led meeting thereafter declared the General Secretary suspended from office and declared the Assistant General Secretary, Uchenna Nwadialo as the Acting General Secretary.

Reacting, the General Secretary, Madam Joyce Oduah stated that neither NBA 1st Vice President nor the National EXCO has the constitutional powers to suspend her from office. She stated that the meeting was not the official meeting of the National Executive Committee Members, but a gathering of those that unconstitutionally want to remove her from office. She noted that the gathering was the third in three days and the only one she has notice of.

She restated that she remains the General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association and her fidelity to the letters of the NBA Constitution and to Members remains unshaken.

• BarristerNG