A source who was present at the meeting but requested anonymity for professional reasons has given TheNigerialawyer an exclusive, detailed account of what happened after the official Body of Benchers (BoB) meeting closed recently in Abuja — a tense, three-hour secret session where judges were asked to leave, NBA President Afam Osigwe was summoned, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN pushed for the Midwest to adopt Akinboro as the consensus candidate, Midwest lawyers led by Chief T.J. Onomigbo Okpoko, SAN, OON and Augustine Alegeh SAN pushed back forcefully, and the oldest lawyer in the room, Chief T.J. Onomigbo Okpoko, SAN, OON, told the Southwest to go and put its own house in order.
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According to the source, the official Body of Benchers meeting had concluded in the normal way. The BoB is a statutory body comprising a mixture of judges and lawyers, and its formal proceedings follow a set agenda. But after the meeting closed officially, something unusual happened.
Lawyer members of the Body of Benchers were asked to remain behind. The judges, who are also members of the BoB, were allowed to leave. The source said the NBA election issue could not be raised during the formal BoB meeting because judges are members and the matter was considered an internal NBA affair.
“It was not raised at the BoB at all. The meeting had ended. The BoB meeting had ended officially before we started this discussion. We had to wait for judges to exit before we started our meeting. It was not part of our agenda.”
The source said he did not know in advance what the post-meeting discussion would be about. He was simply asked to stay, and he did.
Once the judges had left, the lawyer members of the BoB who remained behind were addressed. The source revealed that the concern was straightforward and alarming: there were too many court cases relating to the upcoming NBA election, and senior members of the bar feared a repeat of the 1992 Port Harcourt election debacle.
“They addressed us that there’s a problem within the bar, and they wanted to avoid what happened in Port Harcourt in 1992, which led to a divided bar and we lost the NBA.”
The reference to 1992 was significant. In that year, a major crisis erupted at the NBA election when then-acting President Mrs Priscilla Kuye, who was herself a candidate, was served with an interim injunction from a Port Harcourt High Court ordering the suspension of the election. It marked the first time an NBA election had been stopped by a court order. More litigation followed, and the NBA had no president for six years.
The senior lawyers at the post-BoB session were determined not to let history repeat itself. Their message was clear: as leaders and elders of the bar, they owed themselves a responsibility to find a way towards resolving all the issues before the profession was torn apart again.
The source described the gathering as one of the most significant assemblies of senior legal figures in recent memory. Virtually every former president of the Nigerian Bar Association was present:
- Chief J.O. Okpoko — described by the source as the oldest lawyer in the room and a former president of the NBA.
- Augustine Alegeh SAN — former NBA President (2014–2016).
- Olisa Agbakoba SAN — former NBA President, who the source said is also the chairman of the NBA Board of Trustees.
- Paul Usoro SAN — former NBA President.
- Chief Okey Wali, SAN — also a former president.
- Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN — who arrived later during the discussions.
The source noted that almost all past presidents were present, with the possible exception of O. C. J. Okocha, OFR, SAN, JP. He described it as a full meeting of the bar’s most senior figures.
Before the substantive discussions began, the oldest and most senior lawyer in the room, Chief J.O. Okpoko,SAN, made a crucial intervention. He told the gathering that there was no way they could properly discuss matters relating to the bar in the absence of the sitting NBA President, Afam Osigwe SAN.
“Okpoko then said, ‘Look, gentlemen, there’s no way we can discuss matters relating to the bar in the absence of the NBA President.’ That he doesn’t think that we are properly constituted. That it doesn’t matter how well-meaning we are, it should not be fair to the president to be discussing a matter relating to the bar when he is not around.”
A call was immediately put through to NBA President Afam Osigwe, who promised to be with them in ten minutes. The gathering waited for him.
NBA President Afam Osigwe arrived as promised and was given the opportunity to address the gathering. According to the source, Osigwe made a significant admission and offered what appeared to be a partial walk-back of his controversial “I cannot be neutral” remark that had caused uproar at the NEC meeting in Maiduguri.
“He said, ‘Look, it’s all about the elections,’ that he has no candidate, but that maybe he was not too careful with what he said at NEC meeting when he said he cannot be neutral because he has the right to vote. That maybe he should not have said that, but it was well-meaning. He didn’t have any ulterior motive.”
Osigwe further told the gathering that the NBA election is organised by the electoral body (ECNBA), and that nobody controls that agency it is independent. His remarks appeared designed to reassure the senior lawyers that the election process would not be compromised, despite the controversy surrounding his earlier comments.
The NBA President had previously faced accusations of bias from groups like Egbe Amofin O’odua, which alleged he supported a specific candidate, used NBA resources for campaigning, and appointed loyalists to the ECNBA to influence outcomes. Osigwe’s counsel, Abdul Mohammed SAN, had formally responded to these allegations, describing them as “premature and unfounded” and arguing that the electoral process had not even commenced at the time the petition was written.
While Osigwe was still addressing the gathering, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN arrived. According to the source, the atmosphere in the room shifted immediately. What had been a measured discussion about resolving the election crisis became, in the source’s words, “a matter that I never imagined.”
“As Afam was addressing us, Chief Olanipekun SAN then came, and it became a matter that I never imagined, because I wasn’t part of it. I normally stay away from NBA politics. So they now started dwelling into details. At that point, I had lost interest because I thought that it was something that we were just to discuss and resolve.” source told TheNigerialawyer.
The source revealed that Chief Olanipekun SAN and some well-meaning lawyers from the South-West had taken a position that they wanted only one candidate for the NBA presidency, since the position had been zoned to the South-West. Olanipekun insisted that the Midwest must adopt their candidate Muyiwa Akinboro SAN as the consensus choice.
The source confirmed that Chief Olanipekun SAN placed the blame squarely on the Midwest for refusing to adopt the Egbe Amofin consensus candidate, and insisted that the Midwest must fall in line.
The response from Midwest lawyers was immediate and forceful. Chief Okpoko, SAN and Augustine Alegeh SAN, the former NBA President who himself hails from Edo State in the Midwest, insisted that Egbe Amofin O’odua cannot dictate to the Midwest whom to support. They argued that while the Midwest had conceded the NBA presidency to the South-West, that concession did not extend to accepting a single imposed candidate.
“Other lawyers there said, ‘Look, we are not part of you Yoruba people. All we know is that we are not contesting the position with you, but you cannot limit us to only one choice. All we can tell you is that we will vote for a lawyer from the South-West to become NBA president, but you cannot impose a particular person on us. We concede the position to you.’”
The Midwest lawyers also cited precedent. They pointed out that this was not the first time such a situation had arisen. When it was the South-East’s turn, the Eastern Bar Forum picked a particular candidate [Arthur Obi Okafor, SAN] , but eventually other people contested, and all lawyers across Nigeria were given the opportunity to choose so long as the eventual winner came from the South-East.
The argument was clear: zoning determines which region produces the president, not which individual. Egbe Amofin can endorse a candidate internally, but it cannot use that endorsement to shut out all other aspirants from the South-West, nor can it compel the Midwest or any other zone to accept its choice without question.
As the debate raged on, a proposal was put forward to constitute a committee of all past NBA presidents and general secretaries to mediate. The committee would talk to the plaintiffs and defendants in all the election-related cases with the aim of harmonising the issues and finding a resolution.
But Chief Okpoko, the most senior lawyer in the room, intervened again this time with a blunt verdict that effectively shut down the committee idea.
“Chief T.J. Onomigbo Okpoko, SAN, OON ruled us out of order and said, ‘What is the essence of the committee?’ That look, the problem is with the Southwest. They should go and put their house in order. Nobody’s contesting the position with them. If they cannot put their house in order, it is not people from other zones that will now be interfering in their internal affairs.”
Despite Okpoko’s opposition, the source said there was a generally unanimous conclusion that a committee of past presidents and general secretaries should still be constituted. However, the source left the meeting before it was clear whether the committee was formally set up or not, as the discussion had already stretched to approximately three hours.
Absent from the BoB discussions, but looming over the entire crisis, is the Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA), chaired by Aham Ejelam SAN. The ECNBA is the body constitutionally mandated to organise and conduct the NBA election. Yet, according to many lawyers, the ECNBA has kept conspicuously silent throughout the mounting crisis.
Many lawyers have expressed concern that the ECNBA has not assured the profession of its independence from the NBA President. The committee’s silence, critics say, is being interpreted as complicity as playing along with an NBA President whom many see as attempting to control the electoral process. The ECNBA has not issued any public statement addressing the court cases, the Egbe Amofin controversy, or the broader concerns about the credibility of the upcoming election.
The silence is particularly troubling because the ECNBA’s independence is the single most important guarantee that the election will be free and fair. Without clear, public assurances from the committee that it will act independently of the NBA President and any political bloc, confidence in the process will continue to erode.
The 2026 NBA presidential race is shaping up as a three-way contest, with each aspirant bringing different strengths and facing different challenges:
Muyiwa Akinboro SAN — The Egbe Amofin Consensus Candidate
Akinboro is the consensus candidate endorsed by Egbe Amofin O’odua. A Life Bencher and past General Secretary of the NBA, he has served as Secretary and Chairman of the NBA Abuja Branch and is a life member of the National Executive Committee. His endorsement by Egbe Amofin provides an organised support structure, but the consensus endorsement itself has become deeply controversial, with the ex-parte court order restraining recognition of other candidates attracting widespread condemnation. Akinboro has publicly denied he was behind the court suit and has reaffirmed his commitment to democratic principles.
Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe SAN — Former Chairman, NBA Lagos Branch
Akangbe, a former chairman of the influential NBA Lagos Branch, is a seasoned commercial litigation lawyer with long-standing involvement in Bar politics. He has positioned himself as a defender of internal democracy, publicly criticising attempts to impose a consensus candidate. His opposition to the Egbe Amofin consensus process could divide the Southwest voting bloc.
Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya SAN — Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Specialist
Badejo-Okusanya, Senior Partner at ALP NG & Co, is widely known for her work in arbitration and dispute resolution. She served as General Counsel to the Governor of Lagos State from 2011–2015 and held senior roles in justice sector reform in the Attorney-General’s office. If elected, she would be among the few women to lead the NBA. Critics say she lacks the extensive grassroots political machinery enjoyed by candidates who previously led influential NBA branches.
Two court orders are currently casting a shadow over the 2026 NBA election:
First, an ex-parte order obtained by the Incorporated Trustees of Egbe Amofin O’odua from an Oyo State High Court restraining the NBA and its agents from recognising or processing nominations for any presidential candidate other than the Egbe Amofin consensus nominee (Akinboro) pending the hearing and determination of the suit.
Second, another interim order restraining officials involved in the election process from taking further steps toward the conduct of the 2026 national officers’ election, with defendants told to refrain from “parading themselves as officials of the ECNBA or taking any step whatsoever in furtherance of the conduct of the 2026 National Officers’ Election.”
These orders have effectively introduced legal uncertainty into the entire electoral process. If upheld, they could narrow the field to a single candidate or delay the election entirely. If set aside, the process can proceed but the damage to public confidence in the fairness of the election may already be done.
The Egbe Amofin court order has drawn fierce criticism from across the profession. Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu warned that the possibility of an NBA president emerging through a judicial order rather than the votes of members raises troubling questions for the association’s democratic credentials.
“The idea of a president of the NBA imposed by order of a High Court judge with no regard for the franchise of members is no longer such a far-fetched proposition.”
The Young Lawyers for Democracy also condemned the lawsuit, warning it threatens the principle of universal suffrage introduced during Alegeh’s presidency.
“To approach the court seeking an order that would compel the NBA to recognise only the candidate presented by Egbe Amofin is, in effect, to ask the court to replace the will of thousands of lawyers with the preference of a single group.”
Lawyer Nonso Anyasi asked why lawyers who were not members of Egbe Amofin should be bound by its internal selection process. Etaba Agbor said the decision to seek judicial orders restricting the electoral field goes beyond consultation and “attempts to convert a private process into a legally enforceable outcome.”
The fear of a divided Southwest is not hypothetical. It has happened twice before, and both times the Southwest lost the NBA presidency because of it.
In the 2014 election, when it was the Southwest’s turn, three prominent candidates Chief Adeniyi Akintola SAN, Deacon Dele Adesina, and Mrs Funke Adekoya SAN — refused to step down for each other. Their divided votes allowed Augustine Alegeh from Edo State (Midwest) to win with 691 votes, while the three Southwest candidates split 751 votes between them.
In 2020, the same pattern repeated. Olumide Akpata, also from Edo State, defeated Dr Babatunde Ajibade SAN and Deacon Adesina from the Southwest with 54.3% of the vote, while the two Southwest candidates again split their support.
As Chief T.J. Onomigbo Okpoko, SAN, OON bluntly told the gathering at the post-BoB session: the problem is with the Southwest. They must put their house in order. Nobody else can do it for them.
The official Body of Benchers meeting, before the informal session began, also saw the induction of new members. The source confirmed that approximately five life benchers and about fifteen new members were inducted, among whom was former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN CON, whose appointment as a Bencher became effective from Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
The 2026 NBA presidential election is now caught between competing court orders, factional warfare within the Southwest, an ECNBA that has not publicly assured the profession of its independence, an NBA President who has admitted his neutrality remark was ill-advised, and a Body of Benchers that is alarmed enough to hold a three-hour emergency session after its official meeting.
Whether the committee of past presidents and general secretaries was formally constituted remains unclear. Whether the Southwest can resolve its internal crisis before the election is uncertain. Whether the courts will uphold or set aside the Egbe Amofin orders will determine whether the election goes ahead as planned or is thrown into further chaos.
One thing is clear: the legal and political fireworks in the battle for the 2026 NBA presidency have only just begun. And the ghost of Port Harcourt 1992 six years without a president is haunting the profession once again.
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