The Nigerian Bar Association has issued a stern warning to legal practitioners across the country that it will not hesitate to drag before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee any lawyer found to be filing court cases aimed at drawing the judiciary into the internal affairs of political parties, describing such conduct as an abuse of court process and a direct violation of professional responsibility.
The association's warning came amid the escalating factional and leadership crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress, in which multiple court actions have been filed by rival camps seeking judicial validation of their competing claims to the control and leadership of the party. The NBA said it had closely monitored the unfolding political and legal developments as the country gradually approaches the 2027 general elections and had concluded that urgent intervention was required to protect the integrity of the judiciary and preserve the sanctity of the democratic process.
At the heart of the NBA's position is Section 83 of the Electoral Act 2026, which the association cited as an unambiguous statutory prohibition on any court in Nigeria entertaining jurisdiction over suits or matters pertaining to the internal affairs of a political party. The association stressed that the law went even further by barring courts from issuing interim or interlocutory injunctions in such matters, even where a party had brought an action in clear violation of the Act. It therefore described the spate of court orders currently being sought and granted in connection with the ADC crisis as not only legally untenable but deeply corrosive to democratic norms and the rule of law.
The NBA expressed particular alarm at what it characterised as a disturbing pattern of forum shopping, disingenuous litigation and bad faith applications designed to secure undemocratic political advantage through the courts. It said the spectacle of lawyers openly filing suits in clear defiance of statutory prohibitions, and courts purportedly granting orders in contempt of those same provisions, did not bode well for Nigeria's democracy as the country headed toward another general election cycle.
In language that left no room for ambiguity, the association reminded its members of the elevated obligation they carried as ministers in the temple of justice, warning that membership of the bar came with a duty that was incompatible with functioning as political agents seeking judicial endorsement of partisan objectives. It made clear that any legal practitioner found to be deliberately exploiting the court process to interfere in intra-party political disputes would face formal disciplinary proceedings, and that the association was fully prepared to present petitions to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee against such individuals without hesitation.
The NBA also directed its warning at the judiciary itself, calling on the courts to remain vigilant and resist the temptation to be drawn into what it described plainly as political theatrics. The association said it was imperative that Nigerian courts stayed faithful to the clear letters of the Electoral Act rather than allowing themselves to become instruments of political manoeuvring in the hands of litigants seeking judicial cover for factional ambitions.
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