Edo Poll: Play by the rules, NBA urges parties, candidates

The Chairman, Benin Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Nosa Edo-Osagie on Monday, called on the 13 political parties and their candidates in the governorship election in the state to ensure that they play by the rules to avoid a breakdown of law and order.

Edo-Osagie stated this at the opening ceremony of the Annual Law Week of the branch also known as the Lion Bar theme, “Law as a tool for economic advancement and national security”.

He said, “The political parties and their candidates must play by the rules. Incidentally, there are some of the candidates who are members of the NBA. What is critical to the NBA is that they must play the game by the rules otherwise there will be consequences.

“Anarchy is not what we crave for in society because when there is anarchy, there is a bigger problem than you may not expect. So for all those aspirants in the field, they must play by the rules.”

The association also invited some of the candidates including Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party who are both members of the NBA.

Earlier, the chairman of the planning committee, Paschal Ugbome, said the topic was chosen to reflect the current realities in the country and that solutions would also be proffered.

Ugbome said, “We have chosen the topic because it is important to our country. These two issues today, are capable of either moving us forward as a nation or making us remain static or collapse as a nation.

“As lawyers, we decided to look at it from the prism of law because we believe that law is a pivot on which these two issues rotate. We will interrogate how we have fared as lawyers and why the law itself has failed as an instrument for economic advancement to guarantee national security. We believe we will come out with a way forward on these issues at the end of the Week.”

In his goodwill message, the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, represented by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, said the theme of the weeklong activity is right and that in encouraging investment and economic advancement.

Osaze-Uzzi, “We must examine our legal framework with the possibility of reforming it to ensure it is fit for the realities.”