Distinguished Bar leaders, Colleagues and friends,
I present to you “Yinka Sokoya”. ‘AFRICA’ as he is fondly called among his friends, has been a friend for 18 years now.
He is highly respected, disarmingly humble, resourceful, hardworking and God fearing.
He is exceptionally committed to service delivery and having painstakingly gone through his manifesto detailing his plans for the bar; I am totally convinced that he will deliver on his campaign promises and surpass all expectation.
During his undergraduate days at the prestigious University of Ado Ekiti, Yinka with his charismatic style of leadership provided much needed leadership supports to both the students’ law society and the students’ union government, advocating for students’ rights with dialogue and constructive criticism against the University authority.
His humanitarian spirit to solving issues made him so popular to the extent that the teaming students mistaken him as though he was the president of the Students’ body.
Yinka is a dogged fighter against injustice and brutality of security agencies. He has shown this quality by example when he instituted an action against the erring police officers and the Nigerian Police force for the violation of his fundamental rights in Suit No: FHC/OS/CS/65/2015 OLAYINKA SOKOYA V. INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE & ORS and was awarded the sum of Ten Million, three hundred and fifty thousand Naira Only by the court as general and special damages for the breach of his fundamental rights.
He will stop at nothing to ensure that any assault on any of our members in any part of the country is adequately brought to the attention of appropriate authority and necessary actions taken against such erring officer(s). Just few days ago, he volunteered to join other compassionate members of the bar to redress the assault on a colleague by one of the law enforcement agencies in Lagos State having read the story on social media.
It will be recalled that Olayinka Sokoya has served the Ilesa Branch of NBA as Publicity Secretary and Secretary during which period he brought the Branch to prominence through public interest litigation and equally granted several interviews to the media on national issues.
He led the team of Lawyers to resist the hike in court filing fee introduced by Osun State Government. Recently when Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company IBEDC disconnected Electricity supply to about six Local Government areas in Osun State, he did not only condemn the action on the pages of Newspapers but filed an action in court against IBEDC. To the admiration of those communities, he got judgment on their behalf and #500,000.00k damages was awarded against IBEDC for illegally disconnecting electricity supply to the affected local government areas. Judging from his antecedents he is more than able for the task. I have no doubt; he will make a good Publicity Secretary and ensure adequate, effective and prompt publicity of the activities of the Association.
Respected colleagues, please join me in installing this enigmatic, erudite and energetic Bar Leader as the NBA Publicity Secretary in the forthcoming NBA General Elections. Yinka is committed to projecting the image of the Bar, make it possible!!!
PRINCE ISSA ADEDOKUN Past Chairman YLF IKEJA-BRANCH 2014-2016 Former Assistant Secretary, NBA-IKEJA BRANCH 2016-2018 Law Lecturer, University of Lagos
