An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Uthman Isa Tochukwu Esq., has dismissed claims that the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association defied a court order by issuing a call for nominations for the 2026 NBA national officers’ elections, arguing that the ex parte injunction granted by the High Court of Oyo State had automatically lapsed before the ECNBA issued its notice.
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Tochukwu’s intervention comes after a publication by a legal blog on March 17 suggested that the ECNBA had defied a subsisting court order by proceeding with its Notice No. 6 calling for the nomination of candidates for the forthcoming elections. The notice, signed by ECNBA Chairman Aham Ejelam SAN and Secretary Ibrahim Aliyu Nassarawa Esq., set April 8 as the deadline for submission of nomination forms.
At the core of Tochukwu’s argument is the lifespan of ex parte orders under the Oyo State High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2022. He cited Order 49 Rule 3(3) of the Rules, which he said provides in unequivocal terms that an order of injunction made upon an application ex parte shall abate after seven days.
Tochukwu noted that the ex parte order in Suit No. I/221/2026 — Ibrahim Lawal Esq. & 3 Ors. v. Incorporated Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association & 8 Ors. — was granted on March 4, 2026, meaning it ceased to have effect on March 11, 2026, by exclusion of time, unless properly extended in accordance with Order 49 Rule 3(4) of the same Rules.
He stated that for such an order to be extended, an application must be made before the expiration of the initial seven days, and that from available records, there was no indication that any such application was made within the lifespan of the original order.
“In the absence of a valid application for extension, the order lapsed automatically. Once that happened, there was no longer any legal restraint binding on the NBA or its Electoral Committee,” Tochukwu stated.
The lawyer argued that an order that has lapsed by operation of law cannot be said to have been disobeyed, stating emphatically: “One cannot defy what no longer exists.”
He said the claim that the ECNBA defied a court order assumes, without proper legal basis, that there was a valid and subsisting restraining order at the time the nomination notice was issued, an assumption he described as fundamentally flawed.
To support his position, Tochukwu cited the Court of Appeal decision in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council & Anor v. Ezekor (2013) LPELR-22792(CA), in which the appellate court held that it is the specific rule of court that determines the term of an ex parte order.
He noted that the Court of Appeal made clear that where the Rules of Court prescribe that an order lapses after a specified period, such order expires automatically without the need for any further application. It does not require to be set aside — it simply ceases to exist in the eyes of the law.
The Court of Appeal had emphasised that ex parte orders are not designed to confer indefinite advantage or operate as enduring restraints against an opposing party, and that their lifespan is deliberately kept short to prevent abuse and to ensure parties are brought before the court promptly for a fair hearing.
Tochukwu also addressed the proceedings of March 12, 2026, when the matter came up before Justice G. A. Opayinka at the Ibadan court. He noted that by that date, the initial seven-day lifespan of the ex parte order had already elapsed, meaning there was no subsisting order in force.
He stated that accounts from the proceedings confirm that the court did not make any fresh pronouncement halting the NBA’s electoral process. Rather, attention was drawn to issues of service, pending applications, and procedural steps to be taken before the matter could be properly heard. The matter was subsequently adjourned to April 15, 2026, largely due to scheduling considerations including the Sallah and Easter holidays.
Tochukwu argued that the adjournment itself underscores the absence of urgency that would ordinarily justify the continued existence of a restrictive order of such magnitude.
The lawyer described the ECNBA’s issuance of the nomination notice as a continuation of its statutory and institutional responsibility in the absence of any binding legal restraint, rather than an act of defiance.
He cautioned against the misrepresentation of legal processes, noting that ex parte orders are by their very nature temporary and exceptional, and are not intended to determine substantive rights or to indefinitely stall institutional processes, especially those affecting thousands of members of a national professional body.
“To suggest that the NBA or its Electoral Committee acted in defiance of the court, without first interrogating whether there was a subsisting order in law, risks misrepresenting both the facts and the law,” Tochukwu stated.
The lawyer concluded by stating that fidelity to the rule of law requires more than merely invoking the existence of a court order it requires a proper understanding of its scope, its lifespan, and its legal effect.
“In this case, the law is clear: the ex parte order had lapsed. And once it lapsed, it could no longer bind, restrain, or be the basis for any allegation of disobedience,” he declared.
Tochukwu urged that the narrative surrounding the ECNBA’s actions should not be about defiance but about clarity, legality, and a correct appreciation of the limits of ex parte orders as dictated by the rules of each court within Nigeria’s procedural law.
The claimants in the Ibadan suit — Ibrahim Lawal Esq., Raymond Oki Esq., Omotan Olusola Ogunmodede Esq., and Chief Gabriel Ojo Adekunle Ijalana Esq. — and their counsel have not publicly responded to Tochukwu’s legal arguments as of the time of this report. The matter remains adjourned to April 15, 2026, for hearing of the interlocutory injunction application.
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