By editor
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has said that the ₦300m it received from the Rivers State Government was a gift and not tied to any hosting right for its Annual General Conference as claimed by Administrator,Vice Admiral Ibok Ete Ibas Retd
Ibas had in a statement credited to him on Monday following NBA ‘s shift of conference venue to Enugu State, asked the NBA to refund the sum of N300million it received from Governor Siminilayi Fubara which he said was tied to hosting rights.
But in a statement , the Chairman of the 2025 NBA Conference Planning Committee, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Emeka Obegolu, clarified that the decision to host the conference in Port Harcourt was taken in August 2024 and was not subject to any bidding process or payment of any hosting rights.
Obegolu said that because of the enormous cost involved in hosting the NBA Conference, the Planning Committee usually approaches organisations, agencies, and state governments for support, stressing that the support requested was unconditional and not tied to hosting rights or any rights whatsoever.
The statement clarified that even with such gifts, the host city has no hosting right and there is no representation by the NBA that the conference must be held in a chosen city.
Meanwhile, the withdrawal of the conference from Port Harcourt has denied the people of Rivers State the much needed economic buoyancy while Enugu State Government, the new host has expressed its readiness to host the lawyers for their 2025 Annual General Conference promising them “a memorable and seamless experience” .
According to the Chairperson of Enugu State Tourism Board,Rita Mbah, the state has made available the newly commissioned Enugu International Conference Centre for the event.
The NBA had moved the venue of its 2025 conference from Rivers to Enugu in protest against President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a State of Emergency replacing Governor Siminalayi Fubara with retired naval chief Ibok-ete Ibas on March 18, 2025.
Recall that Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory hosted the NBA conference attended annually by more than 10000 lawyers across the 36 states of the federation almost back to back when he was governor of Rivers State . He was said to have lavishly donated sums much higher than N300million each year to the body of lawyers.
Donations to professional groups and even socio – cultural organisations are seen as mark of goodwill by governments and departments and not tied to a particular course
