The New Nigerian Bar Association has notified Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, of its existence.
The splinter group of the NBA was formed following the controversy that trailed the disinvitation of the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to the 60th Annual General Conference of the NBA.
The conveners of the NNBA, Nuhu Ibrahim and Abdulbasit Suleiman, told Malami in the letter that the group was formed over the failure of the NBA to uphold national unity in some of its recent decisions.
Ibrahim and Suleiman, who are both based in Kaduna, have since been mobilising Northern lawyers to join the splinter group.
The letter reads: “We are pleased to inform you of the formation of a new Association of Lawyers as above captioned.
“The formation of the new Association has become imperative and expedient especially flowing from the activities, disposition and most recently, the decision of the Nigerian Bar Association-NEC (National Executive Committee) which apparently failed to take into consideration our national interests and particularly do not promote the unity of our indissoluble country, Nigeria.
“Sir, the New Nigerian Bar Association believes in the ideals that bounds (sic) our country together as echoed in our National Anthem: ‘The Labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain.’
“You are, however, to be further informed that work is in progress with regards to all the nitty-gritty of the formation of an Association such as this to which we shall keep you updated.”