Lawyer Joyce Oduah has sued the national executive committee of the Nigerian Bar Association and others over her suspension from the position of general secretary.
Other respondents are the NBA and the inspector general of police.
In the suit filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja by her counsel, Murtala Abdul-Rasheed (SAN), Oduah argued that after an emergency meeting held by the committee on Monday, August 15, the action taken against her was unconstitutional.
She claimed that her purported suspension as the general secretary pursuant to the resolution of the emergency meeting of the committee is unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect whatsoever for being a gross violation of Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), Sections 239, 242 and 288 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 and the Constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association, 2015 (as amended) in 2021.
Oduah wants the court to determine five issues, one of which is “Whether or not having regards to the provisions of Sections 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), Sections 11(9), 20 and 21 of the Constitution of the Nigerian Bar Association 2015 (as amended in 2021 and Sections 239, 242 and 288 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 the notice of the meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association held on the 15th day of August 2022 which did not contain the suspension of the Plaintiff as one of its agenda is null and void ab initio and a breach of the Plaintiff’s right to a fair hearing.”
NBA national officers, excluding the president Olumide Akpata, unanimously suspended Oduah for gross misconduct.
