The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has sworn in its 33rd President, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya.
Badejo-Okusanya was said to have been sworn-in on Friday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
She took over the oath of office administered by her predecessor, Afam Osigwe, SAN, as President.
The former NBA President presented a handover note to Badejo-Okusanya during his farewell speech.
“This is your handover note,” Osigwe told his successor. Later you will get a more comprehensive one. I now out herewith.”
The oath taking ceremony was graced by the presence of senior members of the Bar and Bench, among other dignitaries.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police has denied claims by social media personality, Martins Vincent Otse, otherwise known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), that its officers at checkpoints on major highways give information to kidnappers and bandits on the identity and movement of travelers to assist them in abducting them for ransom.
The Police have described the allegations by VDM at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Port Harcourt as false and unsubstantiated.
The Police said officers who risk their lives to prevent crime deserve better than blanket accusations. This was contained in a statement made available to Naija News by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Ani Iniedu on Thursday.
It described VDM’s allegations as unfair and demoralizing, particularly since they were not backed by any supporting evidence.
Police leadership vowed that officers who failed in their duty would be subjected to the full force of internal disciplinary action and the law but said that it is unacceptable to accuse the whole institution of guilt without proof as VDM did.
The Nigeria Police Force has been asked to investigate the assertion made by Mr. Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as “VeryDarkMan(VDM),” that police officers at checkpoint locations along the major highways leak information on the identity and movement of travelers to kidnappers and bandits to aid abduction for ransom at the last Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference in Port Harcourt.
“The Nigeria Police Force takes allegations concerning the conduct of its personnel as serious matters. We want to make it clear:
1. The Character of the Charge
“The Nigeria Police Force categorically rejects these unsubstantiated and unjustly damaging allegations against an institution saddled with the sacred responsibility of protecting millions of Nigerians. Serious allegations like these require a corresponding standard of evidence, and that standard has not yet been met.
“Let me be clear, the police personnel deployed to the checkpoints and other places across the country are there to prevent crime, to detect criminal activity and to protect citizens, not to facilitate kidnapping. In fact, these same police officers routinely deal with the very criminal elements purported to be the recipients of such information. Police personnel have been ambushed, attacked and killed, and police stations, formations and operational assets have also been targeted by terrorists, kidnapers and other violent criminals.
2. Our Officers Deserve More than Broadbrush Accusations
“The Nigeria Police Force is made up of hundreds of thousands of officers who turn up for duty each day under difficult, underfunded and often dangerous conditions, many of them at checkpoints vulnerable to the very criminal elements they are trying to keep off our roads. It is deeply demoralizing for those officers, and unfair to the vast majority who serve with integrity, to be broadly and publicly accused of being complicit in the very crimes that they are sworn to prevent. Those who are found to have compromised their duty will face the full weight of internal discipline and the law. “The strength of a public statement made without evidence should not condemn an entire institution,” the statement said in part.
The Police immediately summoned VDM to give evidence in support of his allegations. It promised that such evidence would be taken seriously and followed up.
