Charles Ogbu writes on the prolonged detention
of a human rights lawyer, Chinedu Agu, in Imo State
A human rights lawyer and former Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Owerri Branch, Chinedu Agu, is currently facing at the hands of Imo State government officials, over an issue that should ordinarily spur the government to act in the people’s interest, exposes how intolerant some state governments have recently become.
Upon his return from the annual convention of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Enugu, Agu did an innocuous travelogue in which he compared Imo State and Enugu State.
In the travelogue, he commended Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State for massive infrastructural development, but thumbed down Governor Hope Uzodimma for not doing much, even when the state collects billions of naira monthly from federal allocation and oil derivation fund.
Rather than simply countering Agu’s claims point-by-point, with a superior argument, making public the report card of the Imo State government in the past five years, he was arrested on September 23, 2025, by the Nigeria Police Force, Imo State Command following a petition by the state government
His prolonged detention further speaks to how far the Nigerian judiciary is willing to go in its dishonourable role of serving as KEPT-MEN ever at the service of the executive arm in exchange for intestinal considerations even at the expense of their sacred duty as the guardian of the justice system.
The lawyer was first arraigned in Owerri before Chief Magistrate Obinna Njemanze who, despite acknowledging lack of jurisdiction over the federal cybercrime charges, went ahead to remand Agu in Owerri Correctional Centre and adjourned the case to October 29, 2025, (over a whole month) for the file to be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (a common tactic regularly used by the police in conjunction with crooked magistrates to keep many innocent Nigerians in jail, at the behest of politicians, of course)
Agu’s legal team filed a fundamental rights application before a Federal High Court in Owerri which was granted but along came a new twist borne of technicality. The correctional service refused to release Agu on the grounds that the court pronoucement was directed at the police which initially arrested and detained the lawyer and not the correctional service currently holding him.
A new bail application was filed by Agu’s legal team to address the correctional service directly. Hearings were adjourned multiple times. Today, October 16, 2025, the Owerri Federal High Court judge threw out Agu’s bail application on the grounds that no formal charge has been filed against the human rights lawyer in any court. Please note that the bail application was not opposed by the prosecuting team. In the ‘wisdom’ of the Judge, Agu cannot be granted bail because no formal charges have been filed against him.
And so, the ex-secretary of the NBA, Owerri branch remains detained over a mere criticism of Governor Uzodimma who is nothing but an employee of the same man. All for an offence that is clearly bailable.
This is exactly how the compromised judiciary in Enugu has kept BarristerBright Emeka Ngene behind bars for over two years by deliberately refusing to rule on his appeal. The first judge recused himself from the matter. The second judge sat on the case, heard all the arguments from both parties and even set a date for ruling only to recuse himself on that very date he himself was set to deliver his ruling. Another judge recently recused himself yet again from the case. These are supposed “honourable” judges, men and women people address as “my lord”…… but here they are, playing Russian roulette with a fellow man’s freedom which ought not to be denied him except when it is legally justified.
The most important fight facing not just the Afam Osigwe-led Nigerian Bar Association but the entire Nigerian masses, is the fight to save the Nigerian judiciary from itself. This fight is of existential importance to every Nigeria. A society without an independent judiciary is a society destined for Golgotha.
I am not a lawyer but I am a smart enough to know that if a lawyer who is a co-worker in the same temple of justice where these judges work, can be treated beneath the law, there is really no hope for justice for an ordinary citizen like myself. So make no mistake, this is not about Agu or Ngene. This is about you and I, ordinary Nigerians.
Ogbu writes from Abuja.
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