Northern lawyers from about 40 branches of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Wednesday declared their support for a one United NBA.

The group at the end of a stakeholders meeting on the state of the nation, held at the NBA headquarters in Abuja, distanced itself from the so called splinter group and urged members and all legal practitioners in the country to rally round the new leadership to ensure that the original aspirations of the body was realized.

The communique reached at the end of the meeting was presented to newsmen by the Acting Chairman of Arewa Lawyers Forum, Mr Elisha Kura SAN.

He said: “We the undersigned individuals, who are Chairmen of the various branches of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that make up the Northern Geopolitical Zone as defined in the NBA Constitution 2015, and other senior members of the Bar have today Wednesday September 2, 2020 in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, met with the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata, and the national officers of the NBA.

“We have unanimously agreed to support his leadership of the NBA, and we hereby restate our true allegiance to the NBA and dissociate ourselves from the “New NBA” or any splitter group whatsoever making the waves in recent weeks as a new association/body of lawyers in Nigeria.

“We understand that the NBA has historically and in recent times been fraught with several challenges but we are indeed assured that the NBA under the leadership of Mr. Olumide Akpata will surmount these challenges and birth an all-inclusive Bar that will work for all Lawyers in Nigeria regardless of any part of the divide one may belong.” (ThisDay)