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Maina: NBA fumes! *Orders withdrawal of Maina’s ‘disdainful’ patronship
Totally scandalised, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), on Friday, commenced immediate action to punish Bamidele Ojo, Chairman and other members, fingered in the award of Patron to Abdulrasheed Maina, a man convicted for stealing N2billion belonging to pensioners.
Recall that Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had convicted the Pension Reform Task Team, (PRTT) boss, on November 8, 2021, for looting part of the fund deposited in the coffers of the body, in a case brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Abang, who found Maina guilty of all 12 counts of the charge against him and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Limited, had ordered that the sentence would run concurrently, with effect from October 25, 2019, the day he was arraigned.
But in what appeared a brazen action by the local branch of the lawyers’ body in Abuja, the former pension’s authority boss, was decorated a patron, a development that has been raising much dust in informed quarters.
In a clear show of outrage, by the parent body, the NBA, conveyed its total rejection of the award, via a statement by Afam Osigwe, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), describing the gesture as as disdainful.
Osigwe, President who indicated that the NBA would commence disciplinary proceedings against Ojo and his cohorts, ordered immediate withdrawal of the appointment, vowing that the body would never hesitate to take firm and decisive institutional actions against any conduct that undermined its integrity, accountability, and respect for the judicial process.
The statement read: “The Nigerian Bar Association views with disdain the purported appointment of Abdulrasheed Maina, who was convicted for stealing over N2 billion in pension funds, as ‘Grand Patron of NBA Garki Branch’ by the Chairman of NBA Garki Branch, Anthony Bamidele Ojo.
“The purported appointment not only paints the legal profession and the NBA in a bad light but also makes a mockery of the Government’s fight against corruption, as well as the Association’s motto of promoting the rule of law.
“Equally reprehensible was the decision of the Chairman to make comments about Abdulrasheed Maina’s appeal, currently believed to be pending at the Supreme Court.
“While the NBA respects Mr Maina’s right to exhaust his right to appeal against the conviction, the Bar will NOT under any guise comment on such an appeal or be seen to try to sway public opinion in his favour. These actions portray the Chairman of NBA Garki and, indeed, any person who endorsed his putrid actions as condoning corrupt practices.
“The Bar fails in her duties to society and the cause of justice when it condones, encourages, and or fails to take definite actions to eliminate corruption and corrupt practices.
“The Association will not, under any guise, lend its platform, name, or institutional credibility to influence public opinion or judicial proceedings in respect of cases that are sub judice or take steps that may be perceived as laundering the image of any person convicted of criminal offences. Any attempt to do so constitutes a grave violation of professional ethics and a direct affront to the rule of law.
“In view of the foregoing, the Chairman of the NBA Garki Branch, Mr. Bamidele Ojo, is hereby directed to immediately withdraw any purported appointment of Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina as a Patron of the Branch and to forthwith cease and desist from issuing statements, comments, or representations on behalf of, or in support of, Mr. Maina or any other litigant in respect of cases pending in court.
“The NBA views this conduct as a serious breach of professional responsibility and institutional discipline. Accordingly, disciplinary proceedings will be commenced against the Chairman of the NBA Garki Branch for actions inconsistent with the Constitution of the NBA, the Rules of Professional Conduct, and the core values of the legal profession.
“Integrity, accountability, respect for the judicial process, and the preservation of public confidence in the legal profession are foundational values of the Nigerian Bar Association. Any conduct that undermines these principles will attract firm and decisive institutional response.
“The NBA therefore disclaims the purported appointment of Abdulrasheed Maina as ‘Grand Patron of NBA Garki Branch’ by the Chairman of the Branch, Anthony Bamidele Ojo. The NBA strongly condemns his actions and reiterates that the Bar must use its power to stop corruption.”
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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