Former President Of Lawsan, Emmanuel Nwobodo Rejects Inclusion As BOT Member

PRESS STATEMENT

PURPORTED REGISTRATION OF LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; THE POSITION OF EMMANUEL NWOBODO, FORMER NATIONAL PRESIDENT, LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA.

The above subject matter refers, please.

INTRODUCTION
1. My attention has been drawn to some unfortunate and despicable publications making rounds with respect to the constitution of LAWSAN and an alleged formation of a board of trustees(hereinafter referred to as BOT) for the Association with my name on the list of trustees.

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2. Ordinarily, LAWSANITES are not supposed to be doubly-worried by pieces of rumours that do not hold weight in the light of the overwhelming pedigree of my person: at the same time, while the above may be correct, I must loosely add that LAWSANITES truly deserve an answer. No single one person is bigger than LAWSAN, which is why I will, through this publication, reaffirm my true loyalty to LAWSAN. Thus, my beloved LAWSANITES, I remain loyal.

3. Before delving further, I must strongly condemn the malicious and unjustified use of propaganda to try to lure out a dark side of my person. Many have urged me to react adversarially but that will prove those who want to divide us correct and install in the minds of LAWSANITES new doubts as to what I represent. At all times, fire can only be quenched with water.

FACTUAL CHRONOLOGY
4. As the 3rd National Executive President of the Law Students’ Association of Nigeria (LAWSAN), when I was informed during the inceptive days of the Blessing Agbomhere led administration of plans to get the Association duly registered under the CAC, and also to supposedly provide counsel on how the Board of the registered Association should be constituted, I endorsed the registration and firmly and unequivocally counselled him that with due consideration to the growth history of the Association and the contributions of the founding fathers to the evolvement of the LAWSAN we have now, the Board should appropriately constitute of the founding fathers, past presidents of the Association well deserving law students with painstaking attention to federal character and a track record of service. My position on that has still not changed.

5. Sometime in October, I was hinted at the list of members of the BOT as published on the official gazette. I immediately expressed my unreserved dissatisfaction with the constitution of the BOT as it did not in any way reflect the values of our Association, nor did it recognize the sacrifices made by key founding members in strengthening the foundational blocks of the Association, despite the inclusion of my name.

6. I further instructed for an amendment of the list to include persons who satisfy the criteria earlier stated or a total removal of my name from the list as I figured, was an affront to the position I earlier stated in the last line of paragraph 4 of this publication. My reservations were made via a phone call.

PURPORTED SUSPENSION FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
7. It will come as no surprise that as expected, perceiving that I was going to come out to rebut my membership of said BOT formation, a publication from the supposed chairman of the BOT had me suspended. Well, my stands have flowed beautifully to this point. I am unwavering in my commitment to the Association. I stand against no one, and I stand with everyone. The voice of the majority is the voice of reason, and even the majority of LAWSANITES say that the BOT should be reconfigured, or that the BOT is struck out from the pages of LAWSAN as an association, then that is what should be.

8. I’m glad that the administration of LAWSAN is taking quick steps to remedy this quagmire which is why I enjoin everyone to remain calm and law-abiding. We will once again pull through this phase. We have as an association, overcome mightier issues, and this will go down with its sister issues we have handled in the past.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST MY PERSON
9. Finally, my attention was also drawn to a publication that accused me of using LAWSAN as a means of enriching my pockets. That accusation is at best laughable and at worst, condemnable. This is not the first time such a person has made exorbitant statements about others, not caring about the consquences of such misguided statements. He has also recruited disciples to aid him in the sojourn of putting question marks on a reputation that took me years to build. Our financial records at LAWSAN were awash with accountability and probity. We defended all the monies gotten through the association to the last dime. Thankfully, my administration worked with the best minds, and my assailants can equally testify to the honesty that our administration preached and practised. I consider the statements of Blessing Agbomere published on the Nigerian Lawyer Blog libelous and the facts will, if care is not taken and due measures taken to retract them, be determined in a competent court. I can accept reservations, criticisms and all, but statements that attempt to overwhelm my integrity will never be treated loosely.

10. I wish to spare a moment to apologise to LAWSANITES whom till today blame me for having preceeded an administration that did nothing to act in the interest of LAWSANITES. I have continued to work hard to strike out the vestiges of such administration from the good records of our great association. It is this fight that has brought them with vipers and scorpions to my doorstep but like I promised, I will not be discouraged. We will all not be discouraged. LAWSAN is bigger than you, me, them, and all.

God bless you all!

__________________
Emmanuel E. Nwobodo
Pioneer President,
Federation of African Law Students(FALAS)

cc:
1. The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice
2. The Registrar of The Corporate Affairs Commission
3. The President, Nigerian Bar Association
4. National President, LAWSAN
5. National Executive Council, LAWSAN
6. National Senate, LAWSAN
7. Past leaders and stakeholders, LAWSAN
8. The Inspector-General of Police
9. The Vice Chancellor, For Press & Public Relations

PURPORTED REGISTRATION OF LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; THE POSITION OF EMMANUEL NWOBODO, FORMER NATIONAL PRESIDENT, LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA.

The above subject matter refers, please.

INTRODUCTION
1. My attention has been drawn to some unfortunate and despicable publications making rounds with respect to the constitution of LAWSAN and an alleged formation of a board of trustees(hereinafter referred to as BOT) for the Association with my name on the list of trustees.

2. Ordinarily, LAWSANITES are not supposed to be doubly-worried by pieces of rumours that do not hold weight in the light of the overwhelming pedigree of my person: at the same time, while the above may be correct, I must loosely add that LAWSANITES truly deserve an answer. No single one person is bigger than LAWSAN, which is why I will, through this publication, reaffirm my true loyalty to LAWSAN. Thus, my beloved LAWSANITES, I remain loyal.

3. Before delving further, I must strongly condemn the malicious and unjustified use of propaganda to try to lure out a dark side of my person. Many have urged me to react adversarially but that will prove those who want to divide us correct and install in the minds of LAWSANITES new doubts as to what I represent. At all times, fire can only be quenched with water.

FACTUAL CHRONOLOGY
4. As the 3rd National Executive President of the Law Students’ Association of Nigeria (LAWSAN), when I was informed during the inceptive days of the Blessing Agbomhere led administration of plans to get the Association duly registered under the CAC, and also to supposedly provide counsel on how the Board of the registered Association should be constituted, I endorsed the registration and firmly and unequivocally counselled him that with due consideration to the growth history of the Association and the contributions of the founding fathers to the evolvement of the LAWSAN we have now, the Board should appropriately constitute of the founding fathers, past presidents of the Association well deserving law students with painstaking attention to federal character and a track record of service. My position on that has still not changed.

5. Sometime in October, I was hinted at the list of members of the BOT as published on the official gazette. I immediately expressed my unreserved dissatisfaction with the constitution of the BOT as it did not in any way reflect the values of our Association, nor did it recognize the sacrifices made by key founding members in strengthening the foundational blocks of the Association, despite the inclusion of my name.

6. I further instructed for an amendment of the list to include persons who satisfy the criteria earlier stated or a total removal of my name from the list as I figured, was an affront to the position I earlier stated in the last line of paragraph 4 of this publication. My reservations were made via a phone call.

PURPORTED SUSPENSION FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
7. It will come as no surprise that as expected, perceiving that I was going to come out to rebut my membership of said BOT formation, a publication from the supposed chairman of the BOT had me suspended. Well, my stands have flowed beautifully to this point. I am unwavering in my commitment to the Association. I stand against no one, and I stand with everyone. The voice of the majority is the voice of reason, and even the majority of LAWSANITES say that the BOT should be reconfigured, or that the BOT is struck out from the pages of LAWSAN as an association, then that is what should be.

8. I’m glad that the administration of LAWSAN is taking quick steps to remedy this quagmire which is why I enjoin everyone to remain calm and law-abiding. We will once again pull through this phase. We have as an association, overcome mightier issues, and this will go down with its sister issues we have handled in the past.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST MY PERSON
9. Finally, my attention was also drawn to a publication that accused me of using LAWSAN as a means of enriching my pockets. That accusation is at best laughable and at worst, condemnable. This is not the first time such a person has made exorbitant statements about others, not caring about the consquences of such misguided statements. He has also recruited disciples to aid him in the sojourn of putting question marks on a reputation that took me years to build. Our financial records at LAWSAN were awash with accountability and probity. We defended all the monies gotten through the association to the last dime. Thankfully, my administration worked with the best minds, and my assailants can equally testify to the honesty that our administration preached and practised. I consider the statements of Blessing Agbomere published on the Nigerian Lawyer Blog libelous and the facts will, if care is not taken and due measures taken to retract them, be determined in a competent court. I can accept reservations, criticisms and all, but statements that attempt to overwhelm my integrity will never be treated loosely.

10. I wish to spare a moment to apologise to LAWSANITES whom till today blame me for having preceeded an administration that did nothing to act in the interest of LAWSANITES. I have continued to work hard to strike out the vestiges of such administration from the good records of our great association. It is this fight that has brought them with vipers and scorpions to my doorstep but like I promised, I will not be discouraged. We will all not be discouraged. LAWSAN is bigger than you, me, them, and all.

God bless you all!

__________________
Emmanuel E. Nwobodo
Pioneer President,
Federation of African Law Students(FALAS)

cc:
1. The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice
2. The Registrar of The Corporate Affairs Commission
3. The President, Nigerian Bar Association
4. National President, LAWSAN
5. National Executive Council, LAWSAN
6. National Senate, LAWSAN
7. Past leaders and stakeholders, LAWSAN
8. The Inspector-General of Police
9. The Dean of Law, Baze University Abuja
10. The Dean of Law, University of Maiduguri
11. The Dean of Law, University of Benin