Mrs Mia Essien, SAN, whose election as Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Section on Legal Practice, was annuled by the NBA President, Mr  Austine Alegeh, SAN, has insisted that she was properly elected.

Essien, while reacting to comments credited to Alegeh, said “The NBA SLP is made up of lawyers who hold tenaciously to all due and democratic processes. All I can say is that all processes and procedure relating to the elections were strictly followed and adhered to. As a senior member of the Bar it will be inappropriate for me to say more as I am aware that the issues have been placed before the High Court in Owerri.

“I know that there were efforts to resolve the issues with the president. Let us not forget that disputes are a fact of life without which lawyers would not have work.  As lawyers if issues arise and efforts by senior members of the Bar to resolve them don’t succeed, any aggrieved person has a right guaranteed by the Constitution to seek redress in a court of law instead of justifying one’s actions with different (and changing) reasons on the pages of the newspapers. “To the best of my knowledge there is no laid out internal mechanism the NBA has for resolving such disputes maybe with this the Bar may wish to consider setting up such a mechanism.

“I heard that an interim injunction was granted directing parties to maintain status quo. It is obvious that as at August some people were elected and were in office in SLP before the purported appointment of a so-called “Interim Chairman,” a position unknown and alien to the NBA Constitution and the SLP Bye-laws. It is said, you cannot resort to an abnormality to create a status quo. Therefore, the status quo in my view and based on law is that those who occupied those positions in August are properly there pending the resolution of the motion on notice and the dispute in court.”