On Monday, August 25, 2025, a horde of residents of Enugu South Urban 1 State Constituency stormed the International Conference Centre, Enugu, venue of the Nigerian Bar Association international conference to protest the continued incarceration of Bright Ngene, a member of the bar and winner of the Enugu South Urban 1 House of Assembly seat.

The card-carrying protesters accused the Peter Mbah-led administration of being behind the allegedly politically motivated imprisonment of Ngene, who won the State Assembly election under the platform of the Labour Party but reportedly refused to defect to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

On July 28, 2024, Magistrate E. D. Onwu of the Enugu South Magistrate Court jailed Ngene for seven years over a community development fund scandal.

The lawmaker’s incarceration, the constituents said, was part of the government’s efforts to remove him from the state Assembly, having allegedly refused Governor Mbah’s offer to defect to the ruling PDP and strengthen the party in the Assembly.

At the NBA conference venue, the protesters 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, who they claimed was wrongly convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Enugu State Magistrate’s Court.

They also accused the state government of interfering in the appeal against the judgment, preventing judges from taking up the case.

Addressing journalists, spokesperson of the protesters, Benedict Kachukwu, said, “We are here to register our peaceful protest to tell the world what has been happening in Enugu State for the past one year. Since the 28th of July, 2024, Hon. Bright Emeka Ngene, who won the House of Assembly seat for Enugu South Urban 1, was unjustly incarcerated.

“Charges that were placed on him were baseless, the judicial process was not followed, and in less than two weeks judgment was dispensed in a criminal matter. And the man has been in detention since then.

“Efforts to get the matter to the High Court have 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 or take up the case.

“So ever since then, this man, Hon. Bright Ngene, has been in detention for no just cause, the powers that be in the state have denied him judicial process, all because he won an election, an election he won on a free ground where the people of Enugu South Urban 1 gave him their mandate freely.”

Kachukwu stated that even in detention, Ngene’s mandate to represent his constituency was overwhelmingly reaffirmed on August 16, during the by-election in some polling units.

He stressed that they were not afraid of due judicial process, adding that they had repeatedly urged the state’s Chief Judge to assign the case, regardless of what the eventual judgment might be.

“But up till now we have not seen, we have not heard anything, and the case has been in a comatose state at the State High Court.

“Several judges have recused themselves. I recall on the 11th of March 2025, one of the judges called for the judgment from the Magistrate Court, but on the day of the sitting, he said that he was recusing himself from the case. He did not give any reason for that.

“And ever since then, the case has not been assigned to any judge. That means the man has been languishing in jail for nothing.

“We have written to every organ of the NBA as we speak, but there has not been any kind of response from them. So, we have done all we can do; we decided to resort to coming here (NBA conference venue) to beg. We are not here to fight, we are not here to quarrel, we are here to beg, please let this man be freed so that he can represent the people that voted him in the House of Assembly,” he said.

The genesis

On March 23, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Labour Party’s Bright Ngene winner of the Enugu South Urban 1 State Constituency seat with 5,862 votes, defeating his closest rival, PDP’s Samuel Ngene, who polled 2,098, a wide margin of 3,764 votes.

The PDP candidate challenged his victory at the State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which nullified the election and ordered a rerun election in eight polling units with 4,257 eligible voters where the election did not hold during the March 18 election.

INEC attempted to conduct the by-election three times – on February 3, February 14, and June 8, 2024 – but the Labour Party resisted alleged attempts to manipulate the process, while the PDP, despite backing from state machinery, struggled to mobilize the 4,257 eligible voters.

Shortly after LP’s successful resistance, Ngene’s old community dispute was revived, a move many believe was intended to sideline him and clear the way for the PDP in future reruns.

After Ngene had spent 15 months in prison, INEC announced a by-election for the constituency. On the election day, a heavy security presence dominated the area, but not a single voter turned out before polls closed.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday, August 19, INEC declared Labour Party’s Bright Ngene winner of the Enugu South 1 State Constituency rerun.

The announcement was contained in a statement by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman Information & Voter Education Committee.

INEC said, “Two re-run elections by order of the Election Petition Appeal Tribunals were held in Enugu and Kano states.

“After previous disruptions of the elections in the two states by violence and thuggery, the elections have now been concluded. Declaration and return were made by the Returning Officers.

“For the Enugu South 1 State Constituency of Enugu State, Ngene Bright Emeka of the Labour Party was declared winner.”

Court matter

Ngene was the secretary and legal advisor of a sub-committee created to manage the finances of his community, Akwuke, when a leadership crisis emerged sometime in 2009.

Akwuke is popular in Enugu State for sand excavation, so the community made money by collecting tolls from tipper drivers. However, this activity led to the dilapidation of the community road. To fix the road, Ngene was asked to pay about N11m to a contractor by the community, as cited in handover documents obtained by our correspondent.

However, in 2017, a petition was written against Ngene and his associate, John Ewoh, alleging theft and conspiracy.

“This was most likely by members of one of the community’s factional leadership,” a community source told The PUNCH.

The police were invited to investigate the matter.

“After the investigation, a suit was instituted against Ngene by the police and his associate at one of the state’s magistrate courts. The matter received little attention from that point until about mid-2022 when things started spiralling out of control,” the source added.

“Initially, the case was presided over by Chief A.O. Eze but was later transferred to E.D. Onwu following the latter’s retirement. By mid-2022, Mr Bright Ngene had emerged as an aspirant for the Enugu South Urban Constituency in the state House of Assembly election. Also, E.D. Onwu was already in charge of the case.

“Mr. Ngene’s political ambition would prove to be his undoing because the issue took a new and unexpected dimension.”

According to the source, this forced the counsel to Ngene to write a petition to the Enugu State’s Chief Judge requesting him to transfer the case to another Magistrate.

“The Chief Judge obliged, and transferred the case to the court of I. M. Mamah on 09/11/2022. Mamah reviewed the case and advised it should be settled through the alternative dispute resolution mechanism, ADR. While the case was still at the ADR, another order originating from the deputy high court registrar, N. Chijioke Agbo, purported to have had the seal of approval of the state’s Chief Judge, ordered the case to be returned to the court of E.D. Onwu.

“Confused by the conflicting letters from the office of the Chief Judge, counsel to Mr Ngene wrote another letter to him asking for clarification.

“The Chief Judge, replying in June 2023, insisted that Mamah was in charge of the case and his orders on the matter subsisted,” the source stated.

However, things got twisted in December 2023, when another letter emerged from the office of the state Chief Judge ordering the case to return to Onwu’s court. This prompted counsel to Mr Ngene to write another letter to the CJ requesting clarification, again.”

“This time there was no reply,” the source noted. “The CJ kept mute while the case was returned to Onwu’s court. Immediately, Onwu started hearing the matter, things started moving quickly. The interval between adjournments became progressively shorter.

“From the way things were going, it was obvious that Onwu was accelerating towards a predetermined end,” Okechukwu Ogbodo, who was following the case, told our correspondent. “This prompted the counsel to Mr. Ngene to petition the Enugu CJ regarding the conduct of the Magistrate.”

The CJ, appearing in cahoots with the whole plan, ignored this plea.

“Eventually the counsel to Mr. Ngene applied for an ex parte order in the Enugu State High Court compelling the Magistrate to recuse himself from the case.”

Our correspondent gathered that from this point, the situation became dramatic as the High Court granted the order.

“But in the interim, Counsel to Mr. Ngene could only get a CTC of the court sitting, which showed that the order was given. When Onwu was shown this document, he insisted on seeing the order itself before obeying it. At this point, court was now sitting almost everyday,” Okechukwu said.

“Before the court sitting the next day, counsel to Mr. Ngene went back to the High Court office to get the document. This time, the registrar of the court told him that the document was ready but needed proofreading by the High Court judge before handing it to him. The following day, he went back to collect the document. The court clerk told him that the order file was missing,” Okechukwu said.

“On probing the court clerk further, he confessed that the file was taken by N. Chijioke Agbo, the Deputy High Court Registrar.”

Left with no option, counsel to Ngene petitioned the National Judicial Council. He obtained a letter from the NJC asking the Magistrate to recuse himself from the case but Onwu allegedly refused.

At this point, the named complainant, Akwuke Town Union, had written to withdraw the case, but the Magistrate insisted that the case must continue, that it’s only the state’s Attorney General that could withdraw the case.

“Even the statement by the Akwuke Town Union president, who ordered the contractual payment, was discarded. The blind could see what was about to happen,” Okechukwu added.

In a last-ditch attempt to put a halt to the sham trial, counsel to Ngene filed a suit against Magistrate Onwu, requesting him to hands-off the case. The sitting was adjourned to June 28 to rule on the new suit.

On June 28, 2024, while slamming the gavel on his desk, Onwu said, “This matter must end today.” Counsel to Ngene asked for time for both parties to prepare their written addresses, but Onwu didn’t oblige him.

The Magistrate pulled out a typed judgment from his file and sentenced Ngene and his associate, John Ewoh, to seven years’ imprisonment respectively: four years for theft and three years for conspiracy.

Governor Mbah’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Uche Anichukwu, said Ngene’s community held a counter protest, disassociating the government interference in the case.

Anichukwu, however, promised to put up a reply to the allegations against the government, but at the time of filing this report, he had yet to do so.

“We are at a function and will proceed to Niger Gas from there. I’ll try and do a written response in the course of the programmes,” he said in a WhatsApp message. (The PUNCH)