CHRONICLE OF THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION AGUATA BRANCH

Abstract

Between 1955 and 1970, a number of persons from old Aguata division were called to the Bar. Some of them took up employments in the civil service, while others established private legal practice in the cities. After the Nigerian Civil War, some lawyers from this area established offices at Ekwulobia. They included Barrister H.N. Ezeoka of Nanka and Barrister G.A.C. Ofor of Akpo. This was the position until the mid-eighties when other lawyers established their law offices at Ekwulobia. Notable among those who established offices at Ekwulobia in the mid-eighties is B.S. Nwankwo S.A.N. With the increase in the number of law offices at Ekwulobia, the number of lawyers who do business thereat also increased. Most of these lawyers belonged to the Awka and Onitsha branches of the Nigerian Bar. The other lawyers who did not have offices at Ekwulobia, but had substantial practices in courts at Ekwulobia and other towns in the old Aguata division. Most of such lawyers had their offices at Onitsha, Nnewi, Awka, Enugu and Aba. Most of the lawyers who established at Ekwulobia and those who had substantial volume of practice thereat were of old Aguata extraction. At a point, they desired to come together under one association to advance their welfare. One thing, however, militated against calling the association a branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. It was the fact that Aguata then, had not been carved out as a judicial division. It was still part of Awka Judicial Division.