Senator Opeyemi Bamidele representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District and Chairs the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters has been named as new member of the Body of Benchers.
Body of Bencher is a professional body saddled with the responsibility of admitting prospective students into the Nigerian Law School. It also regulates the call of graduates of Law School to the Nigerian Bar as well as the regulation of the legal profession in Nigeria.
In a letter dated October 28
and signed by the Secretary of the Body, Mrs. H.A. Turaki, the Body acknowledged the fact that Bamidele had paid his dues as a seasoned legal practitioner and staunch advocate of the Rule of Law in the country.
The body further stated that Senator Bamidele’s appointment was ‘sequel to the resolution by the Body of Benchers that Chairmen of the National Assembly Committees on Judiciary should be made members of the Body of Benchers by virtue of the office’.
A biographical statement issued Sunday on the appointment from Senator Bamidele’s media office read in part: “Bamidele is a New York Attorney, Member of the Seventh House of Representatives and three-term Member of the prestigious Lagos State Cabinet between 2002 and 2011.
“He is a lawyer without border, licensed to practise in the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court; an Attorney and Counselor-at-Law of the State of New York, USA; and a Notary Public of Nigeria.
“Given his long years of fledging legal practice in Nigeria and overseas, coupled with his unique wealth of experience as a seasoned politician, consummate public administrator and quintessential Federal lawmaker, Bamidele has traversed the three arms of Government in the course of his political and legal career.
There is, therefore, no doubt that he would maximize his present placement as a Member of the Body of Benchers and Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, to champion several landmark reforms in legal education and in the nation’s justice sector with a view to further repositioning the Nigerian judiciary on a sound pedestal which will enable it perform its traditional duty more profoundly as the hope of the common man and custodian of the Rule of Law and social justice”.
Bamidele a graduated of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, formerly University of Ife, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and, subsequently, from the University of Benin, Edo State, Nigeria, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) Degree in 1990.
After his call to the Nigerian Bar a year later, Bamidele launched into a full-time legal career in 1992.