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The Nigerian Bar Association has publicly rebuked human rights activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore following a confrontation at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday that drew widespread attention after video footage of the episode circulated online. Sowore has denied the association’s characterization of events and accused its leadership of building its response on what he described as falsehoods.
The NBA described the incident, which occurred on March 24, as a grave concern. According to the association, Sowore entered the courtroom with a number of individuals carrying camera phones and recording equipment, proceeded to set up what appeared to be preparations for a press conference, and had members of his team attend to him in a manner it likened to a broadcast setting. He then moved into the inner bar, sat on one of the tables, and addressed the cameras on what he described as a range of national issues. His case was not listed for hearing on the day, and he was not accompanied by a legal practitioner.
The development triggered a confrontation with Senior Advocate of Nigeria Musibau Adetunbi, who objected to the conduct inside the courtroom. A video of the exchange showed Sowore responding to Adetunbi’s objection: “You’re intimidating me and insulting my intelligence because you’re introducing yourself to me as a SAN. I also have my own SANs.” Order was restored after a court official intervened. Sowore maintained throughout that no violation had occurred, arguing that the judge had not yet taken the bench and the space was accessible to the public.
NBA President Mazi Afam Osigwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, issued a formal statement condemning the episode on Wednesday. “Courtrooms in a constitutional democracy are open to the public not as arenas for performance, but as sanctuaries for the orderly administration of justice,” he wrote. He added that while every Nigerian, including Sowore, was entitled to attend and observe proceedings, that right had to be exercised responsibly.
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“Public access to the courts does not extend to converting the courtroom into a platform for press briefings or actions capable of undermining the dignity and authority of the court, whether or not the court is in session,” Osigwe said. The association expressed solidarity with Adetunbi and called on court authorities to ensure judicial premises remained protected from conduct liable to intimidate lawyers or undermine proceedings.
Sowore rejected the account in a post on his verified X account on Wednesday. He said the NBA’s statement was built on what he termed falsehoods and described the episode as “yet another sad day for democracy in Nigeria.” He said he had attended the court not to hold a briefing but to obtain a certified true copy of a ruling in a cybercrime case against him, in which Justice M.S. Liman had struck out charges he described as baseless, filed by the then-Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, in January 2025.
Sowore said the registrar had informed him that the judge had declined to sign the certified order because the police had covertly filed an ex parte motion to relist the case, and then separately filed a motion to withdraw that same application. He said the judge would only sign after addressing both motions, and that while he waited, court-accredited journalists approached him unprompted.
“These journalists are part of the court environment and they interact freely with lawyers, litigants, and observers,” he wrote, describing the interaction as standard practice. He also drew a pointed comparison, noting that the NBA president himself had been present on his first day of trial when the courtroom was similarly filled with media.
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The cybercrime proceedings in which Sowore sought the certified ruling form part of a longer pattern of legal confrontations between the activist and state authorities. A Federal High Court order previously barred Sowore and his online publication, Sahara Reporters, from publishing content about the IGP and his family, a ruling that itself drew criticism from press freedom advocates. The NBA separately condemned a judicial directive in a different case in which a judge allegedly ordered a lawyer representing Sowore to kneel in court.
The NBA’s statement did not reference the procedural circumstances Sowore described, and the association had not responded publicly to his rebuttal as of Wednesday evening. No court action arising from the incident had been announced. Whether the matter proceeds beyond the exchange of public statements will depend on whether court authorities or the police file any formal complaint regarding Tuesday’s conduct. The Federal High Court had not issued a statement on the incident as of the time of this report.
