By Charles Adingunpu
As avalanche of petitions seeking redress over electoral infractions that led to the perceived dubious victory of political opponents at the polls flood the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, fiery Lawyer and Activist, Malcom Omirhobo warned the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA against offering free legal services to the Commission.
Omirhobo who was reacting to the planned pro bono services to the INEC, stated in a release, titled”NBA, INEC do not need your free legal services.”
Against this backdrop, he enjoined the NBA President, Yakabu Maikyau, SAN not to forget in a hurry that the INEC has already budgeted over ₦3 billion to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national Assembly elections and the March 18 Governorship and State Houses of the Polls.
The fiery Lawyer, however, urged the NBA to channel its energy towards providing free legal services for indigent Nigerians who were victims of unlawful violence in the just concluded general elections as well as prosecute those Indicted for different electoral infractions.
It would be recalled that Maikyau recently called for application from lawyers interested in participating in the programme.
The NBA in an earlier correspondence titled “call for expression of interest, NBA-INEC pro bono services, the NBA President pledged to support INEC to conduct free, fair, credible, inclusive and verifiable elections, adding that, “we(the legal profession) owe Nigerians the duty of sincere participation in all election process.
Under the arrangement, the NBA opted to inaugurate a team of lawyers to provide pro bono services to INEC for the handling of electoral matters including the prosecution of electoral offences arising from the 2023 general elections.
The NBA implored interested members to submit expression of interest (EOI) for the provision of pro bono services to the INEC under the NBA-INEC, pro bono service scheme.
This move by the Maikyau led NBA, has elicited reactions among members of the Association .
