Protesters on Monday stormed the International Conference Centre, venue of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Enugu, to protest the continued detention of a lawmaker-elect, Barrister Bright Ngene.
The Labour Party lawmaker-elect is the winner of Enugu South Urban 1 House of Assembly seat.
An Enugu South Magistrate’s Court, presided over by E. D. Onwu, on July 28, 2024 sentenced Ngene to seven years’ imprisonment over alleged community development fund scandal.
But at the NBA conference venue, the protesters, who described themselves as constituents and friends of Ngene chanted freedom songs and displayed placards with inscriptions: “NBA Please Save Our Democracy”, “Enugu State Judiciary Must be Independent from Executive”, “Oppression is injustice, free Barr Bright Ngene”, “NBA, It’s Bright Ngene today. It could be any Lawyer Tomorrow”, “Injustice to one Lawyer is injustice to all Lawyers”,among others.
The protesters said they decided to embark on the peaceful protest as a last resort to call the attention of the NBA members to the plight of their colleague, Barr Ngene, who they alleged was wrongly convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by an Enugu State Magistrate’s Court.
Addressing journalists, spokesperson of the protesters, Mr. Benedict Kachukwu said, “As you can see, we are here, these are friends of Barr Bright Ngene, who was unjustly incarcerated.
We are here to register our peaceful protest to tell the world what has been happening in Enugu state for the past one year and since the 28th of July 2024, Hon Bright Emeka Ngene that won the House of Assembly seat Enugu South Urban has been unjustly incarcerated.
“Charges that were put on him were baseless, judicial process was not followed and in less than two weeks judgement was dispensed. And the man has been in detention since then till now.
“Efforts to get the matter to the High Court has proved abortive because somehow judges are now recusing themselves from the case. The Chief Judge has refused to assign the case to a new judge.
“So ever since then till now this man, Hon Bright Ngene has been in detention for no just cause. All because he won an election, an election he won on a free ground where the people of Enugu South Urban 1 have given him their mandate freely.
“Somehow he has reaffirmed the decision of the mandate of the people on the 16th of August 2025 where he won overwhelmingly again even from detention.”
Kachukwu said they were at the NBA conference venue to plead with the NBA to look into the matter so that judicial process will be followed.