The Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan last week emerged the winner of the first Tokunbo Orimobi Annual Moot Court Competition.
The UI team of two, comprising Boluwatife Anjola and Rose Nnata, won the contest ahead of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; University of Lagos, Akoka; and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which were adjudged first, second and third runners-up, respectively.
In the contest, which held last Thursday at the Afe Babalola Auditorium, University of Lagos, UI’s Anjola was also adjudged the best oralist among the eight participants.
The two members of the winning team were each rewarded with a cash prize of N100,000, while Anjola, who was adjudged the best oralist, got an additional N50,000 and a job offer with Tokunbo Orimobi & Co., a commercial law firm with eight offices in five countries – Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States of America and Mauritius.
Each of the participating varsities got a plaque while the eight contestants were each presented with a certificate.
The Tokunbo Orimobi Moot Court Competition was inaugurated as part of the events marking the 40th anniversary of Tokunbo Orimobi & Co.
The firm’s Global Chairman, Mr Michael Orimobi, explained that the moot court competition was a component of the Tokunbo Orimobi Foundation, which focuses on mentorship, education and advisory for Law students.
He said it was an initiative to give back to the society.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Apel Capital & Trust, Mr Yinka Agboola, who led the panel of judges comprising Mrs Omobola Makinde, MD/CEO, GTL Trustees Limited, and Mr Michael Orimobi, described the performances of the eight contestants as impressive.
“I must commend the effort and the brilliant performance of all of you. You almost turned this place into a regular court with your passion and brilliance,” Agboola told the Law students.
He said the students inspired the hope of a bright future for the legal profession and prayed that they would not derail, just as he commended their lecturers.
On his part, Orimobi said while the contestants put up brilliant performances, the competition exposed their shallow knowledge of transactions in commercial practice.
“I’ve always said it that for certain topics in school, I think practising lecturers and professionals are better to teach those topics. Interestingly, the areas that we have chosen are those areas that professionals that do these things on a transactional basis everyday should teach. And I think that showed a bit today; there was not a lot of transactional depth in the materials that were presented.
“This is exactly one of the reasons we organised this moot competition, to show that we will need to get to a point where professionals in the industry are made to teach these topics because that is when the students can get the full understanding of how these things work,” Orimobi said.
