By SANDRA UMEH

About 10,000 lawyers have registered for the 61st Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the association’s President, Mr Olumide Akpata, said on Thursday.

Akpata made this known at a media chat in Lagos to announce the conference billed to hold at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Port Harcourt.

The 2021 NBA Annual General Conference, which will be both physical and virtual, has the theme: “Taking the Lead”.

According to Akpata, as at Thursday morning, more than 9,000 delegates had registered for the conference and by evening, the figure hit about 10,000.

“It is commendable,” he said.

Akpata said that the NBA conference usually held in August was moved to October in 2021 due to circumstances.

“We know the times are not normal; so, we have made the conference both physical and virtual.

“We are hopeful we will have good participation,” he said.

Akpata said also that NBA had set up forum to tackle challenges of lawyers living with disability so as to create an enabling atmosphere for their effective participation in lawyers’ activities.

He expressed the hope that soon, a special session would be infused in the conference for the benefit of lawyers living with disabilities.

The Chairman of the Technical Committee on Conference Planning, Mr Akin Ajibola, said that NBA would deploy a virtual conferencing platform which could deliver an in-person conference experience.

The conference chairman said that participants at the conference should comply with COVID-19 prevention protocols.

He urged them to adhere to all health and safety regulations.

NAN reports that some topics for discussion at the conference are: “Taking the Lead: A Conversation on Leadership and Followership”, “Reversing the Trend: A call for National Re-orientation”, “The Levers for Economic Growth and Development”. (NAN)

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