Former President Olusegun Obasanjo boycotted the recently-held 60th annual general conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
His action is believed to be in connection with the exclusion of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai from the list of speakers due to his government’s failure to stop the killings in Southern Kaduna and his alleged abuse of human rights following a petition signed by hundreds of lawyers.
El-Rufai’s exclusion triggered several Muslim lawyers to demand that Obasanjo and Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike be removed also from the list of speakers at the conference.
According to them, both individuals also allegedly violated human rights.
It was gathered that Wike was represented at the virtual conference by an official of his administration.
It was also learnt that Obasanjo was advised by the organisers not to attend the event due to the controversy that his inclusion generated.
Obasanjo’s media aide Kehinde Akinyemi told PUNCH on Saturday: “Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was obviously not at the conference but I don’t know why he did not attend the event.”
