Busy-body lawyer, Dickson Adeyanju, has rubbished the demand by Rivers State Sole Administrator, Rear Admiral Ekwe Ibok-Ete Ibas on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to refund the N300m allegedly paid to it by the state as hosting right for the now shifted Annual Conference of the Association.
Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd), the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, had asked the NBA to return N300 million, which he alleged was given as “hosting rights” for the NBA’s 2025 Annual General Conference (AGC), initially scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt.
The NBA later moved the conference to Enugu, citing what it called “a politically unsafe environment” in Rivers State, following the removal of democratically elected officials and the appointment of Ibas as sole administrator.
But Adeyanju said Ibas’s demand is baseless.
In his words, “The NBA never collected a kobo from the current Rivers State Government. There is no such thing as ‘hosting rights’ in NBA tradition. The decision to hold conferences in certain cities is based on logistics, not payments.”
He clarified that the NBA had initially engaged with a democratically elected Rivers Government when Port Harcourt was considered. That arrangement, according to him, became irrelevant after the political shift in the state.
“The NBA is not a business venture that takes money in exchange for favours. Our decisions are driven by principles, not payments,” Adeyanju added.
He also warned the NBA not to bow to pressure, saying the demand for a refund is just a distraction from the real issue—the alleged breakdown of democratic order in Rivers.
“The NBA must stay focused and not allow political actors to bully it into silence or compromise. This is about upholding the rule of law,” he said.
Adeyanju further stated that the NBA’s stand is not against the people of Rivers State, but against what he described as unconstitutional governance.
“We are not rejecting the people or our colleagues in Rivers. We are rejecting unlawful governance. Lawyers must always defend democracy, no matter how tough,” he concluded.
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