Barr. Abdul Mahmud, Member
Abdul Mahmud is a Nigerian-British lawyer, social critic, columnist, human rights advocate, knowledge worker, essayist, poet, former students’ union leader and activist.
Educated at the University of Jos, Nigeria, Universities of Durham and Reading, England, he is currently the President of the Public Interest Lawyers League (PILL), a body of a professional and independent group of lawyers committed to the promotion and enforcement of the rights of vulnerable and minority groups, deepening of democracy and governance and the expansion of public interest law.
He recently led lawyers of the league and represented families of victims of police brutality and extrajudicial killings at judicial panels set up to investigate police brutality in Nigeria. A highly regarded and anthologised third-generation Nigerian poet, his works, which appear under the nom de guerre, Obemata, have been translated into Polish, Lithuanian and French languages.
He has recently completed work on three collections of poems, including the highly anticipated collection, ‘Metaphors & Paradoxes- Poems are written in the time of Covid-19′, which will be released in late 2022; and he is currently working on the book, Caution! Demolition Work in Progress: Greedy Elites and the Ruin Nation’, to be published in early 2023. He runs his private YouTube channel, AM ONLINE TV, and Twitter handle, @Abdulmahmud01, where he poses contemporary issues that interrogate everyday life.