SPECIAL REPORT

• APPEAL NOW SLATED FOR JANUARY 29

Embattled senior lawyer and winner of the Enugu South Urban 1 State Constituency election has sent an SOS from prison over his prolonged detention at the Enugu State Correctional Centre.

In a letter obtained by CITY LAWYER, Ngene, who was severally declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alleged that Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah is behind his nearly two-year detention ordeal. Ngene has been incarcerated since July 28, 2024, following a judgment of an Enugu Magistrates Court which sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment without an option of fine over a matter which was abandoned since 2017 and which the complainants had allegedly sought to discontinue before the judgment but were disallowed by the court.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has again waded into the plight of the senior lawyer. Following the SOS, the Chairman of NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Prof. Uju Agomoh yesterday led a delegation to visit Ngene at the Enugu Correctional Centre.

A member of the delegation told CITY LAWYER that Ngene pointedly accused Mbah of being behind his plight following his strident refusal to decamp to then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruling party even while six other Labour Party lawmakers decamped to PDP to swell its ranks in the Enugu State House of Assembly.

Ngene’s travails began after he defeated his PDP opponent in the March 18, 2023, House of Assembly Election. The PDP levied action at the tribunal, citing alleged over-voting in two polling units. The petition was struck out but upheld on appeal, with the court ordering a rerun. After several hiccups, the final rerun was held on August 16, 2025, with INEC again declaring Ngene as the winner. He contested the rerun while still incarcerated behind bars.

In the SOS letter obtained by CITY LAWYER, Ngene stated that “it’s with a heavy & utterly frustrated heart that I write you. It’s still a shock that it’s now about two solid years that I have remained unjustly incarcerated because Enugu state compromised judicial refused to hear my appeal!!!

“The Executive (The Governor) interfering and influencing the court who hides under constitution (sic) immunity to abuse their oath of office with reckless abandon to satisfy the Governor’s wish which is to destroy me and my political career. One will ask what is my offence to the Governor? My simple offence is that I refused to defect from my party (Labour party) to then PDP (now APC).

“The Governor as emperor & dictator said I have insulted him by sticking to my principles more so when other LP members have defected at his request. Could you imagine that? He vowed that I will never return to the House to serve my constituency again until he finishes his tenure unless on one condition, that is, that I relinquish my seat to PDP.”

Querying NBA’s alleged silence on his plight, Ngene stated that “The hard truth in the circumstances is, if NBA could be this silence (sic) & helpless in this judicial impunity at Enugu when one of her members is involved, what then could happen when a non-member is involved?” It is this SOS that prompted the visit by the NBA-SPIDEL team. It was unclear at press time whether the visit was at the direction of the Afam Osigwe-led Executive Committee.

CITY LAWYER recalls that an NBA team led by its First Vice President and Chairman of the NBA Human Rights Institute, Mr. Sebastine Anyia, had around September last year visited Ngene at the Correctional Centre. Ngige’s constituents had on August 25, 2025, stormed the International Conference Centre (ICC), Enugu, venue of the 2025 NBA Annual General Conference, to protest his continued incarceration.

A report by the team reads: “At the prison, we had a first-hand interaction with Mr. Ngene, who narrated the ordeals he has endured during this prolonged delay. Notably, the Chairman of the Enugu Branch himself was hearing for the first time that the appeal had reached judgment stage, and that it was on the very day of judgment that the presiding judge declined to deliver his decision on personal grounds.”

CITY LAWYER gathered that other judges had also recused themselves from the matter, leading to a stalemate of sorts. However, it was gathered that Ngene’s appeal against the judgement of the Enugu South Magistrate Court presided over by His Worship E. D. Onwu is now before Justice Chinedu Ezugwu, who has been described as “very cerebral.” The matter comes up on Thursday, January 29, 2025. Ngene is challenging his 7 years jail term for theft and conspiracy.

Ngene was the Secretary and Legal Advisor of a sub-committee created to manage the finances of his community, Akwuke, when a leadership crisis emerged sometime in 2009. In 2017, a petition was written against him and his associate, John Ewoh, alleging theft and conspiracy. “This was most likely by members of one of the community’s factional leadership,” a community source told THE PUNCH.

The police were invited to investigate the matter. “After the investigation, a suit was instituted against Ngene by the police and his associate at one of the state’s magistrate courts. The matter received little attention from that point until about mid-2022 when things started spiralling out of control,” the source added.

“Initially, the case was presided over by Chief A. O. Eze but was later transferred to E. D. Onwu following the latter’s retirement. By mid-2022, Mr. Bright Ngene had emerged as an aspirant for the Enugu South Urban Constituency in the state House of Assembly election. Also, E. D. Onwu was already in charge of the case. Mr. Ngene’s political ambition would prove to be his undoing because the issue took a new and unexpected dimension.”

According to the source, this forced the counsel to Ngene to write a petition to the Enugu State’s Chief Judge requesting him to transfer the case to another Magistrate.

Said the source: “The Chief Judge obliged, and transferred the case to the court of I. M. Mamah on 09/11/2022. Mamah reviewed the case and advised it should be settled through the alternative dispute resolution mechanism, ADR. While the case was still at the ADR, another order originating from the deputy high court registrar, N. Chijioke Agbo, purported to have had the seal of approval of the state’s Chief Judge, ordered the case to be returned to the court of E. D. Onwu.

“Confused by the conflicting letters from the office of the Chief Judge, counsel to Mr. Ngene wrote another letter to him asking for clarification. The Chief Judge, replying in June 2023, insisted that Mamah was in charge of the case and his orders on the matter subsisted.”

According to Okechukwu Ogbodo, who was following the case, “Even the statement by the Akwuke Town Union president, who ordered the contractual payment, was discarded.”

In a last-ditch attempt to halt the trial, counsel to Ngene filed a suit against Magistrate Onwu, requesting him to recuse himself from the matter. Though the court granted the prayer, it proved an uphill task obtaining a certified copy of the order, moreso as the presiding Magistrate insisted on seeing a copy of the order.

On June 28, 2024, the Magistrate sought to render judgment on the matter. Counsel to Ngene reportedly asked for time for both parties to prepare their written addresses, a request which was allegedly rejected by the court. The Magistrate proceeded to sentence Ngene and his associate, John Ewoh, to four years imprisonment for theft and three years imprisonment for conspiracy.

In an earlier petition dated 2^nd July, 2024, and signed by Chief Ayo Olorunfemi, Labour Party’s Deputy National Chairman, on behalf of the National Working Committee, the party wrote: “Our candidate, Hon Ngene had raised the alarm over an alleged conspiracy between the executive and judiciary arms of the state government to imprison him. He had claimed that the plot was aimed at punishing him for insisting on the mandate he won in the March 18, 2023 House of Assembly Election. This alarmed was sounded after the Magistrate, who handed the verdict on Friday had a day earlier said that he was under instruction to deal with the matter decisively.

“He had also noted that the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice A. R. Ozoemena, the Deputy Chief Registrar, Chijioke Agbo, and Magistrate E. D. Onwu colluded to disregard the petition pending before the National Judicial Council which seized the case. He had reported the erring judicial officers to the Nigeria Judicial Council, (NJC) and had sought an urgent intervention to prevent what he sees as a gross miscarriage of justice aimed at terminating his political and legal careers.”

According to the party, “We strongly believe that our party and candidate did not get fair hearing. Like I stated earlier, this matter has been rested for about 7 years but all of a sudden, the Presiding magistrate reassumed the matter and within 24 hours gave a ruling in spite of protestations by the defence counsel who fruitlessly dissuade the magistrate to adjourned the matter to a latter date for the purpose of fair hearing.”

The party urged the NJC “to initiate a disciplinary action against the Attorney General of Enugu state, the Honourable Chief Judge of Enugu State, the Deputy Chief Registrar, and the controversial Magistrate, His Worship E. D Onwu for over reaching their professional dictates and bringing the judiciary to opprobrium and disrepute.”

Governor Mbah’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, however told THE PUNCH that Ngene’s community held a counter protest, disassociating the government from interference in the case. He had promised to put up a more elaborate reply to the allegations against the government.

(C) CITY LAWYER Magazine. All rights reserved. To join our Channel, click here. Click here to join our WhatsApp chatroom. Contact us at citylawyermag@gmail.com or 081-3838-0083.