Lawyers in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Monday, October 5, boycotted the church and mosque services for the new legal year over an alleged act by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Iyabo Yerima, they regard as distasteful.
The new legal year church and mosque services will be held at both the St James’s Cathedral, Oke Bola and the Oja’ba Central Mosque, Mapo.
However, the Ibadan branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) ordered its members to boycott the services which always mark the beginning of the new year for legal practitioners.
A highly competent source told Impact Nigeria News Online on Monday morning that the decision to boycott the church and mosque services was due to the fact that a slot for the NBA to speak during the church service was allegedly removed by the Chief Judge at the last minute.
It could however not be ascertained why the Chief Judge decided to remove the NBA slot in the order of programmes for the church service.
As of the time of this report, there were no lawyers at St James’s Cathedral when the service commenced at 10:00 a.m. while the same scenario is expected to unfold during the mosque service later in the day.
The source added that the NBA had directed lawyers to converge on its official secretariat at NTC Road, Oke Ado, Ibadan, for further briefing and and to organise what the NBA described as “alternative bar celebration.”
