The extraordinary general meeting that police officers, a padlocked gate and a threatened injunction had failed to stop went ahead at the Bar Centre in Owerri on Thursday, 15 October 2026.
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It produced three decisions.
The Chairman of the Owerri Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Mazi Udegbulem, gave up the chair after members objected to his presiding and refused to proceed until he did. The five-man committee he had earlier constituted to investigate the allegations against him was dissolved by resolution. And a fresh five-man Branch committee was appointed to examine the receipt, management and disbursement of the N100 million donated to the Branch by the Imo State Government, and to report to the Branch at its General Meeting on 31 October 2026.
The new committee is to work independently of the three-member committee constituted by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, the day before.
The account circulated after the meeting traces the crisis to the Branch’s General Meeting of Saturday, 26 September 2026, at which allegations concerning the management of the N100 million produced calls for the Chairman’s impeachment.
At that meeting, members are said to have adopted a resolution purporting to impeach the Chairman. On his refusal to step aside, a substantial number of members walked out.
After the walkout, the Chairman constituted a five-man committee to investigate the allegations against him. Members opposed to that arrangement questioned the propriety of a Chairman presiding over a meeting at which he constituted a committee to investigate allegations directly involving himself, and said it raised fundamental concerns about independence, impartiality and accountability.
183 members of the Branch then requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting under the NBA Uniform Bye-Law.
Their letter is dated Friday, 2 October 2026, addressed to the Chairman through the Branch Secretary, and requested that the meeting be convened for Saturday, 10 October 2026.
Following an Executive Committee meeting on Thursday, 8 October, the Chairman, through a letter signed by the Assistant Secretary, rejected the proposed meeting as unconstitutional. The requisitionists questioned the authority of the Assistant Secretary, whose appointment in July to fill a vacancy was said to have expired on 28 September 2026.
On the expiry of the seven-day period allowed under Article 11(4) for the Chairman to direct the Secretary to convene the requisitioned meeting, the requisitionists, acting through their convener Mr. Chinedu Agu, issued a notice maintaining 10 October as the date.
On Friday, 9 October, Mr. Agu was detained for about eight hours at the X-Squad Unit of the Imo State Police Command, on allegations of conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace, impersonation of the Chairman, and cyberbullying.
The allegations are said to have arisen from a complaint by Mr. Godson Killiwe-Nwachukwu, described in the account as a non-financial member of the Branch. The requisitionists questioned the circumstances of the complaint and of the police intervention.
Mr. Agu was released that night, reportedly with a directive from the Commissioner of Police, Imo State, that the meeting scheduled for 10 October should not hold.
On Saturday, 10 October, more than 18 police officers in three operational vehicles were reportedly deployed to the entrance of the Magistrates’ Court premises, and the entrance gate was locked by court security personnel reportedly acting on the instructions of the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Imo State. Members who arrived, including Mr. Agu, were denied access.
The requisitionists issued a further notice, this time through Mr. Chidi Nworka, rescheduling the meeting for 15 October.
Ahead of it, allegations emerged that the Chairman had made unsuccessful attempts to secure an ex parte injunction restraining the meeting.
The matter was then taken to the President of the Nigerian Bar Association.
In a letter written to the Chairman and copied to Mr. Chidi Nworka, Mr. Chinedu Agu, the General Secretary, the Third Vice President and the Treasurer, the President directed that the requisitioned meeting be allowed to proceed, and constituted a three-member delegation of the General Secretary, Mr. Afam Okeke, the Third Vice President and the Treasurer to observe the proceedings.
(The letter in TheNigeriaLawyer’s possession is dated 14 October 2026. The account circulated after the meeting describes it as issued in the early hours of 15 October. See the verification note.)
After the Chairman’s opening remarks, members objected to his continuing as presiding officer and demanded that he recuse himself. Those supporting the motion argued that the Chairman, having declared the meeting unconstitutional and allegedly taken steps to frustrate it, lacked the standing to preside over it, citing the aborted meeting of 10 October, the police intervention, the detention of Mr. Agu and the alleged resort to the courts.
The Chairman initially refused. Members maintained that proceedings would not continue unless he stepped aside. He eventually did.
A motion was then moved and supported dissolving the five-man committee he had constituted, and the meeting resolved to establish a fresh five-man Branch committee to examine the receipt, management and disbursement of the N100 million, independently of the national committee.
The decision is reported to have carried on a show of hands with no vote recorded against.
The new committee
- Mr. Chidi Nworka, Chairman
- Mrs. V. C. Joshua, Secretary
- Mr. F. C. Obinna, Member
- Mr. Chukwurah Onuorah, Member
- Ms. Chima Ezike, Member
It is to report to the Branch at the General Meeting of 31 October 2026.
A fresh Notice of Removal was served on the Chairman on 28 September 2026. The prescribed 21-day period for his response had not elapsed as at 15 October, which is why the meeting did not take up his removal.
The question is expected to be considered at the General Meeting of 31 October 2026, under Article 13 of the Uniform Bye-Law, at the same meeting that is to receive the new committee’s report.
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