The Nigerian Bar Association, Port Harcourt Branch, has been thrown into uncertainty ahead of its election scheduled for Friday, June 26, 2026, following a suit filed before the Rivers State High Court challenging the branch’s final list of eligible voters and the composition of its Electoral Committee.
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The suit, marked PHC/2250/CS/2026, is fixed for hearing on Thursday, June 25, 2026, before the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.
The applicants are Godsent O. Elenwa, Esq., Daminabo L. Davies, Esq., and Odinaka G. Emenike, Esq., who sued for themselves and as representing concerned and aggrieved members of the NBA Port Harcourt Branch.
Godsent Elenwa is also said to be a candidate in the election, contesting for the office of Provost.
The respondents are Cordelia U. Eke, Esq., Chairman of NBA Port Harcourt Branch; Chukwuma Eke, Esq., Chairman of the Branch Electoral Committee; and Nonye Nzewi-Agbasi, Esq., Secretary of the Electoral Committee.
The Electoral Committee chairman and secretary were sued for themselves and as representing members of the committee.
In the Originating Summons, brought pursuant to Order 3 Rules 2 and 3 of the High Court of Rivers State Civil Procedure Rules, 2023, Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, and the Uniform Bye-Laws contained in the NBA Constitution 2015, as amended in 2025, the applicants are asking the court to determine whether the Electoral Committee has the power to omit or disenfranchise bona fide financial members who have met the requirements to vote and whose names appear in official attendance records.
They are also asking the court to determine whether the inclusion of persons allegedly not qualified to vote, including one Wisdom Umina Sumuko, listed as Serial No. 242 under the 6–10 years post-call category, who is alleged to have been physically resident in the United Kingdom since September 2025, does not amount to a gross violation of the NBA Constitution and a fraud on the electoral process.
The applicants further contend that the failure of the Electoral Committee to include unique membership identity numbers on the final list of eligible voters released on June 14, 2026, breached the duty of transparency and opened the door to alleged proxy voting, impersonation and institutional fraud.
They are also asking the court to determine whether alleged institutional bias, conflict of interest, lack of neutrality and data manipulation, including alleged duplication of over 75 names across multiple year-of-call categories, do not invalidate the integrity of the final list of eligible voters and the entire electoral process.
Among the reliefs sought, the applicants are asking the court to declare the final list of eligible voters, dated June 12, 2026, but published on June 14, 2026, as profoundly compromised, structurally flawed, packed with phantom voters, plagued by systemic omission of qualified voters, and consequently null, void and of no legal effect.
They are also asking the court to declare that the Port Harcourt Branch Electoral Committee, as presently constituted under the leadership of the second and third respondents, has compromised its institutional neutrality, violated the NBA Constitution, exhibited gross administrative incompetence and bias, and is unfit to conduct any election for executive offices of the branch.
The applicants further seek an order dissolving and disbanding the Electoral Committee as presently constituted.
They also want the court to direct the President of the NBA to immediately constitute an independent and unbiased caretaker electoral committee made up of past branch chairmen of unimpeachable professional standing and without partisan affiliations, to take over from the current ELECO, purge the voters’ register and conduct a transparent branch election.
In addition, they are seeking an injunction restraining the respondents, their agents, secretariat, proxies or anyone acting on their authority from using or relying on the disputed final list of eligible voters for the purpose of conducting any election or voting exercise within the NBA Port Harcourt Branch.
The suit has heightened anxiety within the branch, especially as the election is scheduled to hold on Friday, June 26, 2026.
Speaking on the controversy, a former Secretary of the branch and former Governor of the Eastern Bar Forum, Soseipiriye Longwilliams, Esq., said the Electoral Committee did not do a thorough job on the voters’ list published for the election.
According to him, the names and call categories of voters were allegedly muddled up, while several names were duplicated.
He further alleged that the list contained over 255 names of ineligible voters who either did not pay their Bar Practice Fees for the required number of years or did not meet the statutory number of branch meeting attendance.
Longwilliams called for an outright postponement of the election, saying the time left before the scheduled poll was too short for the Electoral Committee to properly clean up the list.
He said the committee should be given more time to do a more thorough job before any election is conducted.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Judiciary has reportedly declared Friday, June 26, 2026, a court-free day.
With the court case fixed for hearing a day before the scheduled election, and with competing political groups within the branch reportedly preparing for a showdown, it remains uncertain whether the NBA Port Harcourt Branch election will proceed as planned.
The suit now places before the court questions of voter eligibility, alleged disenfranchisement, alleged duplication of names, alleged inclusion of unqualified voters, transparency of the voters’ register and the neutrality of the Electoral Committee ahead of the branch election.
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