Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The administration of justice in Enugu North Senatorial District has ground to a near halt as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Nsukka and Obollo-Afor branches, sustain an indefinite boycott of court proceedings to protest the three-year absence of judges from physical sittings in the zone. The legal practitioners are demanding the immediate return of all case files from Enugu, the end of what they describe as a dysfunctional virtual hearing system, and the resumption of physical court sessions across all five judicial divisions in the senatorial district.
The crisis, which has festered for over three years, came to a head on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, when lawyers in the Nsukka zone shut down all High Court premises across the five judicial divisions – Nsukka, Obollo-Afor, Enugu-Ezike, Ogbede and Umulokpa – declaring that they would no longer participate in virtual proceedings or appear in any court where a judge was not physically present. The boycott, which has been sustained since then, has effectively paralysed judicial operations in the zone, leaving thousands of litigants, criminal suspects, and legal practitioners stranded.
Speaking during the protest, the Chairman of the NBA Nsukka Branch, Comrade Sunday Agbo, said the action became necessary after months of frustration over what he described as the systematic abandonment of the courts by judges who had taken refuge in Enugu, the state capital, under the guise of virtual hearings. “We want the whole world to know what the judiciary in Enugu North Senatorial Zone is suffering,” Agbo declared. “They now abandoned our courts. They have announced they want to do virtual hearing.” While acknowledging that virtual hearings are recognised under existing court rules, Agbo argued that the arrangement was never intended to replace the physical presence of judges in their respective jurisdictions. “That does not mean that a judge should abdicate his primary posting,” he emphasised.
The NBA chairman revealed that the crisis was compounded by the forced relocation of all active case files from the local judicial divisions to Enugu, creating a centralised bureaucratic bottleneck that has made it impossible for lawyers to access case files or obtain certified true copies of court documents without extensive delays. “They took all the case files to Enugu and blocked them there. So if you want a certified copy, you will not get it,” Agbo alleged. He further exposed a thriving ring of extortion within the system, claiming that court clerks routinely demand between ₦20,000 and ₦30,000 from lawyers simply to transport newly filed processes from the local divisions up to Enugu for attention. “When you file a process, you will be ordered by the clerk to bring money, 20,000, 30,000, for that process to go up to Enugu,” he said.
The remote setup has proved highly ineffective due to persistent network failures, leaving lawyers and litigants stranded at the court premises for hours. “Most of the time, we’ll be left to be abandoned in the courts on the ground that there’s no network. Those of us in Nsukka will stay until 5:00 PM in the evening,” Agbo explained. One of the protesting lawyers, Frank Agbowo, told PREMIUM TIMES that the judges had switched to virtual hearings due to frequent attacks by kidnappers along the Ugwogo-Opi-Nsukka Road, which they must travel from Enugu metropolis to access the Nsukka area. However, he argued that the switch had not served the purpose of justice because of the inadequacies of the arrangement. “Sometimes, the judge needs to watch the witnesses, the behaviour of parties during the proceedings to determine how he or she is going to make his or her decision,” Agbowo said. He also noted that documents tendered during virtual proceedings often could not be properly examined by the judge or opposing counsel due to technical limitations.
The Chairman of the NBA Obollo-Afor branch, Desmond Ezema, confirmed that lawyers and litigants in the district have been facing a difficult time for the past two years due to the non-physical appearance of High Court judges. He appealed to judiciary stakeholders and the Enugu State Government to intervene and restore normal court activities. The NBA Enugu Branch Chairman, Chief Barr. Venatus Chukwuma Odo, admitted that High Court judges have completely abandoned all judicial divisions outside the Enugu township due to extreme security risks, particularly the strategic Ugwogo Nike-Opi-Nsukka highway, which has become a notorious “kidnappers’ den.” Odo disclosed that the wholesale evacuation of the judiciary is not peculiar to the Nsukka zone, revealing a wider institutional collapse across Enugu State, with judges also fleeing their stations in Oji-River, Aguobu-Owa, Amagunze, and Awhum.
The NBA had earlier petitioned the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Hon. Justice Raymond Ozoemena, on March 26, 2026, seeking urgent intervention, but said no meaningful action had been taken. Prior to that, several letters had been written to the Chief Judge, including one in December 2023, warning that lawyers would resort to protest if the situation did not improve by January 2024. Despite these repeated appeals, the judges have remained in Enugu, conducting virtual proceedings using court clerks’ mobile phones and outdated computer systems.
In a related development, lawyers in the Nsukka zone have threatened to continue the boycott indefinitely until the Chief Judge takes concrete steps to restore physical court sittings, return all case files to their respective divisions, and equip the courts with functional virtual hearing facilities where necessary. The boycott has drawn attention to the growing crisis of access to justice in Nigeria’s rural areas, where insecurity and institutional neglect have combined to create a justice vacuum. As the standoff continues, litigants, suspects, and legal practitioners in the Enugu North Senatorial District remain caught in the middle, uncertain of when – or if – the courts will reopen their doors.
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