Lawyers sign petition to bar El-Rufai from speaking at NBA conference

More than 500 peopple have signed a new petition asking the Nigerian Bar Association to exclude Kaduna State Governor, from the list of speakers in the upcoming Annual General Conference of the NBA.

This follows accusations that he failed his state in the wake of the killings in Souther Kaduna as well as his human rights record.

The petition, which was started by Usani Odum, has garnered nearly 500 signatures barely hours after it was initiated, Punch reports.

The summary of the petition read, “The senseless killings in southern Kaduna must stop. The political correctness of Governor El-Rufai on national TV is diversionary. It is a reversal to have him speak to lawyers on security, when Governor (Babagana) Zulum of Borno a better person can do so.

“We may not be able to do anything to stop the killings, but we can stop the governor from speaking at the NBA-AGC to show our disapproval of the manner he has handled the situation!!”
Meanwhile, several lawyers have publicly indicated that they will not be attending the NBA conference if the leadership of the bar insists on el-Rufai.

In a letter, titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’, and addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning,  NBA, Prof Koyinsola Ajayi, some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference.

The letter, which was signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada, listed 10 allegations against el-Rufai and his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Uba Sani.

The lawyers recalled that el-Rufai had during the run-up to the 2019 general elections threatened that any foreigner who interfered in the election would leave Nigeria in “body bags”.

They stated that several human rights groups had ranked el-Rufai low for his intolerance for the opposition.