Avoid party disputes or face disciplinary action, NBA warns lawyers

The Nigerian Bar Association has issued its sharpest public rebuke yet of lawyers and courts caught up in the escalating crisis within the African Democratic Congress, warning that legal practitioners who continue dragging the judiciary into internal party disputes face disciplinary action and calling on the National Judicial Council to sanction judges who do the same.

In a statement signed by NBA President Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN) on Friday, the association condemned what it described as the “disturbing involvement by lawyers and courts” in intra-party disputes, despite clear restrictions under the Electoral Act 2026. The NBA specifically faulted recent court decisions involving disputes within the ADC, describing them as part of a wider trend of “forum shopping” and abuse of judicial processes aimed at securing political advantage.

The association titled its statement pointedly: “Our Laws and Democracy Must Be Protected at All Times.”

The NBA cited Section 83 of the Electoral Act 2026, which states that “No court in Nigeria shall entertain jurisdiction over any suit or matter pertaining to the internal affairs of a political party.” The provision, the association noted, goes further expressly prohibiting courts from granting interim or interlocutory injunctions even where an action has been brought in violation of the Act.

The NBA said what it currently observes are “situations where actions are not only instituted in courts by lawyers in clear violation of the Act, but courts purportedly grant interim and/or interlocutory injunctions in clear contempt of statutory provisions of the law. This does not augur well for our democracy,” Osigwe stated.

The NBA’s warning to erring lawyers was unambiguous. “Lawyers who deliberately file actions aimed at procuring judicial interference in intra-party affairs, or who seek ex parte or interlocutory orders in clear violation of statutory provisions, risk facing disciplinary proceedings,” Osigwe warned. “We will not hesitate to present petitions before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee against any legal practitioner found to be engaging in such conduct. This will be pursued decisively to serve as a deterrent and to preserve the sanctity of the judicial process.”

The association reminded its members that they are “Ministers in the Temple of Justice and not political agents seeking judicial endorsement of partisan objectives,” stressing that the filing of court actions where jurisdiction is expressly excluded constitutes both an abuse of court process and a violation of professional responsibility.

The NBA did not limit its warning to lawyers alone. The association called on the National Judicial Council to make regulations sanctioning any judge who knowingly assumes jurisdiction in matters clearly barred by law, grants orders in respect of intra-party disputes in violation of statutory provisions, or lends the authority of the court to partisan political manoeuvring. The NBA warned that it would not shy away from drawing the NJC’s attention to the actions of any judicial officer found to have acted inconsistently with the judicial oath.

INEC was also put on notice. The NBA urged the commission to exercise its supervisory powers with neutrality and independence as the country moves toward the 2027 general elections, warning: “The Commission must not, under any circumstances, be perceived as a participant in political engineering.”

The statement comes as the ADC’s leadership crisis has produced a tangle of court filings, appellate rulings, and competing injunctions that has left the party’s legal status in a state of confusion. A suit filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe challenging the David Mark-led leadership, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025 is scheduled for hearing at the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 14. Simultaneously, the Mark faction has filed its own motion seeking to compel INEC to restore its officials to the commission’s portal after their names were removed on April 1, following a Court of Appeal order.

The NBA described this pattern as part of a wider danger to constitutional democracy as Nigeria moves toward 2027, warning that “such practices, if not immediately curbed, would directly contradict the clear intendment of the Electoral Act and risk transforming the judicial processes into avenues for political score-settling or electoral manipulation.”

The association concluded: “Nigeria’s democracy must not be weakened by legal manoeuvring, institutional capture, or the misuse of judicial authority. The courts must remain arbiters of justice, not instruments of political advantage.”