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NBA chief urges dialogue over death penalties
From Abiodun Fagbemi, Ilorin
TO be able to reach a compromise on the contentious issue of desirability or otherwise of death penalties in the country, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Bayo Ojo, has urged a dialogue over the matter.
Ojo, who denied reports of him being "a sponsored candidate" of the Federal Government, said Nigerian society was not yet ripe for the abrogation of death penalty.
Speaking with reporters yesterday in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, the NBA president said: "Every nation develops at its own pace and time. The yardstick equally differs. For instance, the level of literacy of a particular environment matters. I, therefore, believe that if we must be honest with ourselves, Nigeria is not ripe yet to abrogate death sentence".
Ojo, while reacting to the allegation of being sponsored by the government, said his opponents during the NBA election allegedly made popular the insinuation probably to weaken his campaign strategies.
According to him, "government candidate, even before I was elected people used that as a gimmick against me. But what is government candidate? I don't know, but if it is government sponsorship, I am not, nobody sponsored me, apart from the well-wishers".
The NBA chief, while appraising the nation's current democratic structure, believed that political parties have failed proponents of democracy, canvassing instead an independent candidate for the 2007 presidential election.
He underlined the importance of strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to react to certain policies of the government but said the NBA as a professional body would not join Labour in any of its proposed actions.
"We are not opposed to any strike but the NBA as a professional organisation and not a union, cannot join in the strike", he said.
Reacting to cases of murder of some of its members before his tenure, Ojo said the NBA under his leadership would pursue the case to its logical conclusion.
According to him, we will continue from where our predecessors stopped. A fiat had been obtained from the attorney-general on the case and the NBA being a continuum body, will not relent until justice is seen to have been done".
Speaking on his programmes for lawyers in the country under his leadership, he underlined the imperative of welfare packages and computer training for his members.
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