A fresh controversy has erupted within the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as Chief Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, SAN, openly confronted the NBA President, Afam Osigwe, SAN, in a strongly worded letter alleging abuse of power and violations of the Nigerian Constitution. The letter, which centers on ongoing litigation and actions taken by the NBA leadership, raises serious concerns about due process, fair hearing, and the integrity of the legal profession.

YOU ARE WRONG MR PRESIDENT: IT IS NOT ABOUT ISSUES OF PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY, YOU ARE ABUSING YOUR POWER AND VIOLATING NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION.

Dear Mr Afam Osigwe, SAN, President NBA.

I read your reply to my write-up about the information I got that you wrote petition against me to LPDC or the Body of Benchers because of the cases I was briefed to lead the legal teams of the Claimants to file against the Incorporated Trustees of NBA and yourself which cases are pending before the High Court of Justice of Oyo State sitting in Ibadan and the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan.

In your reply to the concerns I raised, you admitted the facts of the allegations in my write-up and you then arrogantly in an infamous manner in professional respect, justified your misconduct for taking such unprofessional and unprecedented actions not only against me but against the administration of justice and due process of law. Mr President you know that facts admitted need no further proof. I will visit this your misconduct before the appropriate forum. Rather than justifying your misconduct, it is more honourable to resign as President of NBA to prevent further damages being done to the NBA and the nobility of the legal profession under your watch.

As you rightly admitted in your reply to me, the issues upon which you sat in the comfort of your office to act as the accuser, the prosecutor and judge all rolled in one to cause my name to be removed from the list of those to be re-appointed to the Body of Benchers under section 3(1)(l) of Legal Practitioners Act 2004 as amended are issues currently not only pending before the High Court of justice of Oyo State but before the Court of Appeal of Nigeria sitting in Ibadan Oyo State.

Perhaps in your hasty and unprecedented professional misconduct in an infamous manner to unjustifiably witch-hunt me, you forgot that you have the professional duties and responsibilities not to do anything in the form of self-help as you have done, to adjudicate on these issues and pass judgement on me unheard, by the unjust removal of my name from the list of those to be re-appointed to BOB as aforementioned, not as a Representative of NBA but as an appointee of BOB and at the instance of BOB itself under section 3(1)(l) of LPA.

Mr President of NBA, you are not just a lawyer; you are a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. You swore to an oath when you were admitted to the Inner Bar to protect and defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the laws of Nigeria. Perhaps in your haste to pass judgement against me and condemn me unheard, you arrogantly admitted to have been responsible for the removal of my name from the list of those to be re-appointed to the Body of Benchers under section 3(1)(l) of LPA, based on your petition, which petition before it was heard, you had already subjected to adjudication and found me guilty and then removed my name as punishment.

So, Mr President, you forgot your famous theory of presumption of innocence which you propounded when one of the NBA Presidents was being tried for alleged criminal offence in the court of law then. You also forgot to hold others who have pending professional misconduct allegations guilty as you have done to me. Because it involves me, I must be guilty before my guilt is decided. Your actions to remove my name on the basis of your petition before I could be served and heard is an extraordinary breach not only of the rule of natural justice but a gross breach of the Constitution of Nigeria that gives me the right to fair hearing by a Court or Tribunal that is constituted in such a manner as to ensure its impartiality and to be manned by people who are not biased.

Mr President you also failed in your duty to respect not only the processes pending before the High Court of Oyo State but the appeal which you caused to be filed before the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan. More worrisome to me is not the removal of my name from re-appointment by BOB at your behest, but your hasty and baseless claims and conclusions that I procured Ex-Parte orders based on suppression of facts which are issues you have already submitted for adjudication before the High Court of Oyo State. You do not have respect for Court Sir! If you do, you should have waited. That you did not wait, but decided to be judgmental and did what you admitted to have done, shows how low you treat our courts as President of NBA and yet you want Nigerians to respect our courts.

Be that as it may, let me be clear: I did not procure the orders in the cases before the High Court in Ibadan. I do not engage in such sharp practices. I have not and will not engage professional misconduct. The orders you claimed were procured were granted based on facts including your admission in your presidential address to lawyers in NBA NEC meetings in Benin where you already had nominated and appointed those to serve on ECNBA without regard to NBA constitution that vests the power of appointment of members of ECNBA on NBA NEC. Mr President, you are not NBA NEC. NBA NEC is not you. The communique you referred to in your reply to me, spoke of ratification of the appointment you already made in your Presidential address. As a lawyer Mr President, you know that “ratification” is not the same thing as “appointment”. Perhaps you did not know this.

Just note that the pending litigations raise fundamental constitutional issues that seek to challenge the arrogance of naked power in the face of NBA constitution. It is a suit aimed at institutional accountability and holding NBA to follow its constitution. It is not about your personal ego and I have the duty to ensure that NBA is run according to due process and not whimsical powers of the President. Mr President, perhaps you have forgotten that your conduct since these cases were filed against NBA and you in Ibadan demonstrated clearly how NBA under your watch has no respect for judicial processes and even the courts. You know it. You cannot pretend not to know it.

For instance, the matters you decided to take me to LPDC for, are matters currently pending before High Court and the Court of Appeal. Perhaps you forgot that while I was leading you as one of the prosecutors before the LPDC when I was the Chief Prosecutor of NBA, there are established precedents well embodied in decisions of LPDC that matters whose subject matters are in issue before the regular courts cannot be the basis for LPDC to assume jurisdiction. Did you forget? Perhaps you forgot or out of deliberate obstruction of justice, you decided to put pen to paper to write your petition against me and to use the said petition as a basis of witch-hunt as you have done.

If truly your objective was for professional accountability and not the issue of witch hunts, why did you leave other eminent members of the legal team in the cases pending against you before the High Court and the Court of Appeal out of your petition. There are not less than seven other Senior Advocates of Nigeria that are members of the legal team whose names are there for even the blind to see.

Let me be clear and state again; I am not afraid of your petition! I am equally not bothered about your witch hunts. I am only extremely worried and concerned about the manner you are abusing your power. I am worried that as President of the largest Bar in Africa your conduct has become worse than those you have duties and responsibilities to hold accountable. NBA is not your fiefdom and you are not the king that does no wrong. Your conduct is undermining the existence of NBA. Just know it.

Mr President of NBA, as you rightly pointed in your reply to me, I was in NBA NEC meeting in Benin. You did not allow anyone to take objection to your appointment of ECNBA which was done without consultation and which was also done in gross violation of NBA constitution. It is the violation of NBA constitution that I was briefed to challenge and this issue has been submitted to the court of law for adjudication. I owe greater duty to professional ethics to accept the brief. I have no regrets in one second to lead the legal team.

Mr President, I think your conduct is likely to destroy not only NBA but the rule of law and the integrity of the legal profession. Mr president let me conclude that my performances during my tenure both as representative of NBA, 2017-2020 and under section 3(1)(l) of LPA from 2023-2026, was exceptional as can be confirmed from the Secretariat of the Hon body of Benchers wherein I scored 87% grade of attendance and performances of other functions as a Bencher.

I was appointed by the Hon Body of Benchers in my own right as an eminent legal practitioner and I was not appointed or nominated by NBA as its representative at the Body of Benchers. It is only the Hon Body of Benchers who has the duty and responsibility to evaluate my conduct and performance as both a Bencher of the Body and Legal Practitioner.

Your objection as president of NBA and your subsequent decision to remove name from being re-appointed as a Bencher under section 3(1)(l) of LPA based on your petition was not only made in bad faith, it was an abuse of power rooted in political vendetta, self serving and partisanship vindictiveness,

As you admitted and it is a well known fact in the NBA, I am the lead counsel to those who are opposed to your inappropriate use of office as NBA president to campaign for one of the aspirants in the forthcoming 2026 NBA elections and your unconstitutional composition of ECNBA which you had constituted to rig the 2026 NBA election in favour of your preferred and anointed aspirant and or candidate.

It is pursuant to this that I was denied the right to be reappointed as a member of BOB under section 3(1)(l) of LPA and punished on the basis of the objection; your objection as NBA president because I accepted to lead the team and not play sycophantic role in aid of your unconstitutional composition of ECNBA. You used your office in BOB to remove my name without me been afforded the opportunity of a hearing not to talk of even the fairness of the hearing, even though I was eminently qualified for the renewal of my appointment in accordance with the decision of the BOB to give those of us appointed under section 3(1)(l) of LPA automatic renewal if we performed our duties creditably well.

The reports available at the Secretariat of the BOB, shows that my performances were excellent, scoring 87%. Despite this I was discriminated and singled out for punishment in non-renewal of my membership based on allegations upon which I was not heard.

Sir, it is important to draw your attention to the fact that I have distinguished myself in the service of the legal profession and served the bar selflessly over the years. I was a member of the BOB from 2017 to 2020 representing NBA and I served with commendable admiration as can be seen from my records of service at BOB Secretariat and NBA. I was the Chief Prosecutor for NBA at LPDC from 2012 to 2017 before I resigned my appointment. In all these positions, I served with diligence commitment and dedication without compromising ethical standards.

Based on the foregoing Mr. President, you were certainly not motivated by the best interests of the Bar and the ethics of the legal profession in your petition. You are arrogantly abusing your power to undermine judicial process and in contempt of court. You are intimidating me as lead counsel. You are obstructing the cause and course of justice by your conduct and your petition. I say no more. I wish you the best in your misguided ventures.

Chief Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, SAN
(Bencher 2017-2020 and 2023-2026).
7th day of April 2026