A former Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Owerri Branch, Chinedu Agu, has responded to a 24-hour ultimatum demanding that he substantiate or apologise for publications concerning the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Imo State, Hon. Paul Obinatu, insisting that he would not withdraw what he described as legitimate questions about public affairs, the disbursement of ₦350 million to NBA branches and developments surrounding the leadership of the Imo State Judiciary.
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In a lengthy statement titled “Apology Letter to the Honourable, the Attorney-General of Imo State, Hon. Paul Obinatu and a Note to the Chairman of NBA Owerri, Dr. Mazi Udegbulem: The Audacity of Saying the Uncomfortable Truth, and Its Burden,” Agu said he had reflected on the notice issued to him by the Publicity Secretary of the NBA Owerri Branch requiring him either to produce evidence for his publications or apologise to the Attorney-General over statements said to be false and disparaging.
Agu said he had decided to “apologise,” but explained that he was using the word in the classical Socratic sense of an apologia a defence or explanation rather than a retraction.
“I shall apologise,” he wrote, adding that his understanding of an apology was not “capitulation nor grovelling,” but an opportunity to restate and defend the questions that had triggered the controversy.
The lawyer then turned to the controversy over financial support said to have been released by the Imo State Government to the six NBA branches in the state.
According to Agu, the branch chairmen had submitted their official account details before the 2026 NBA Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, with the details allegedly collated through the Chairman of NBA Owerri, Dr. Mazi Udegbulem.
He claimed that the proposed disbursement was ₦100 million to NBA Owerri and ₦50 million each to the other five branches, making a total of ₦350 million. Agu said five branches received their allocations on August 24, 2026, while NBA Mbaise did not receive its ₦50 million at the same time.
He linked the delayed Mbaise payment to a separate disagreement over a letter dated August 14, 2026, which was addressed to the National Judicial Council concerning the absence of a substantive Chief Judge in Imo State.
Agu alleged that Udegbulem circulated the draft to the branch chairmen for approval and signature, but that the Chairman of NBA Mbaise objected on the ground that the branches had not collectively agreed at their meeting to write the NJC and therefore declined to sign.
Agu contended that this disagreement was followed by the exclusion of Mbaise when the other five branches received their payments on August 24. That link is Agu’s allegation; the material provided does not independently establish that the payment was delayed because the Mbaise chairman declined to sign the NJC letter.
He further claimed that after he publicly raised the issue in a publication of August 28, arrangements were subsequently made for the Mbaise Branch to receive its allocation.
According to him, the branch eventually received the ₦50 million late on September 1, eight days after the other branches.
“I apologise that NBA Mbaise eventually received its ₦50 million only in the late hours of Tuesday, 1 September 2026, eight days after the other Branches had received theirs. And I apologise that I am still asking the obvious question: Why?” Agu wrote.
Agu said explanations were subsequently offered for the delay, including a claim that the Mbaise Chairman did not attend a meeting at which account details were to be submitted.
He disputed that explanation, arguing that the Chairman of Mbano/Etiti was also absent yet his branch was paid, and maintaining that all branch account details had already been collated earlier in August.
He said another explanation—that the Mbaise Chairman had initially submitted a personal account instead of the branch’s official account—also did not satisfactorily answer his concerns.
Agu maintained that he remained convinced his August 28 publication had drawn necessary public attention to the issue.
He also raised a separate allegation concerning the Eastern Bar Forum, claiming that the Imo State Government released ₦40 million in connection with an EBF meeting but that only ₦9 million was initially transferred to the Forum.
According to Agu, the explanation reportedly given was that a banking transfer limit prevented the balance of ₦31 million from being sent on the same day.
He further alleged that after the EBF leadership attended a cocktail hosted by the Acting Chief Judge of Imo State despite an earlier advice that they should not recognise her in that capacity, the outstanding ₦31 million was not transferred and other arrangements connected with the meeting were withdrawn.
“If any of these propositions is false, HAG, I invite their specific rebuttal. Not abuse. Not adjectives. Not twenty-four-hour notices. Facts,” he wrote.
Agu said he was prepared to defend his assertions with evidence and challenged any person who considered his allegations false and defamatory to seek legal redress.
“If any person named in this publication is persuaded that any material allegation I have made is defamatory because it is false, the courts remain open. Sue me.
“Particularise the falsehood. Put me in the witness box. And I shall come with what I know,” he wrote.
The lawyer also criticised what he described as attempts to isolate or discipline him for raising questions.
He recalled his arrest, prosecution and remand in 2025 and said he was not afraid of another confrontation with the authorities.
“I do not have a fetish for detention. I do not regard prison custody as an achievement. But neither do I regard the fear of prison as a sufficient reason for a lawyer to surrender his conscience,” Agu said.
Turning directly to Attorney-General Obinatu, Agu argued that the office of the Attorney-General should function not merely as the government’s legal advocate but as its conscience in law.
“The office you occupy, HAG, is not merely the office of Government’s lawyer. It is supposed to be Government’s conscience in law. The Attorney-General must be able to tell a Governor not only what Government can do, but what justice says Government ought not to do,” he wrote.
He warned that where a chief law officer becomes primarily a defender of political convenience, the restraining function of the office risks being compromised.
Agu also addressed NBA Owerri Chairman Udegbulem, raising questions over the branch leadership’s position on the prolonged acting tenure of the Imo State Chief Judge.
He said the NBA Owerri Advisory Council had earlier taken the position that the NJC had not acted outside the Constitution and that the branch should refrain from interfering in the NJC’s handling of the Acting Chief Judge’s tenure.
He therefore questioned what changed before the August 14 letter seeking intervention from the NJC emerged.
“One is therefore entitled to ask: What changed? What intervened between the institutional position that the Branch should refrain from taking sides and the subsequent attempt to mobilise the six Branch Chairmen behind a letter to the NJC on substantially the same controversy?” he asked.
Agu also criticised the handling of dissenting opinions within NBA Owerri, alleging that members who questioned the ₦100 million received by the branch or expressed views that did not align with the leadership were sometimes removed from platforms, threatened or shouted down.
He argued that the Bar should remain a place where lawyers are free to question their leadership.
“A microphone at a Bar meeting is not a presidential pardon. A member should not have to earn executive affection before being permitted to speak. The Bar is argumentative by design. Lawyers disagree. Lawyers ask questions. Lawyers irritate one another,” he wrote.
“A Bar in which everybody agrees with the Chairman is not necessarily a peaceful Bar. It may simply be a frightened one.”
He further warned against what he considered an excessive closeness between a Bar association and government, drawing a distinction between legitimate institutional engagement and political entanglement.
“The Bar may dine with Government. It may partner with Government. It may accept Government’s support for legitimate institutional purposes.
“But when justice walks into the room and Government stands on the other side, the Bar must still remember where it belongs,” Agu said.
Concluding what he repeatedly described as his “apology,” Agu said he was apologising only for continuing to ask questions, retain records and demand explanations over the use of public or institutional funds.
“I apologise for asking questions. I apologise for remembering dates. I apologise for retaining messages. I apologise for noticing discrepancies,” he wrote.
He added that members of professional associations should be entitled to ask where money meant for their institutions came from, how much was received, who received it, why others did not receive it at the same time and whether any obligations accompanied such payments.
“I apologise most profoundly for possessing the incurable conviction that power must explain itself,” he said.
Agu ended by urging the Attorney-General to act as the legal conscience of government rather than simply defend every government position.
“There will be occasions when fidelity to justice will require you to disappoint Government. That is not disloyalty. That is the highest loyalty the Attorney-General can render to Government,” he wrote.
“Because the most dangerous adviser around a Governor is not the man who sometimes says No. It is the man who has forgotten how to say it.”
He concluded: “Power can obtain a remand order, but it cannot obtain an injunction against history… So, HAG, be the conscience of Government in law.”
Agu signed the statement as a solicitor, notary public, past Secretary of NBA Owerri and former political detainee.
The allegations concerning the Attorney-General, NBA Owerri leadership, the circumstances surrounding the ₦350 million disbursement and the Eastern Bar Forum funds are Agu’s claims in the statement. The material provided does not contain substantive responses from Obinatu or Udegbulem to the specific allegations.
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