A former secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Owerri branch, Chinedu Agu, who was recently remanded at the Owerri Custodial Centre over allegations of criminal defamation and incitement against Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, delivered a blistering critique of the country’s justice system on Wednesday, accusing the judiciary of enabling executive overreach and widening the “justice gaps” in Nigeria’s press-freedom and cyber-security regime.
Speaking at the NBA-SPIDEL Conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Agu described himself as “a living, breathing example” of the ways Nigeria’s legal system is being used to silence dissent and punish lawful expression.
His remarks came as he served as a panellist responding to a paper by renowned human-rights advocate Femi Falana, SAN, on press freedom and cybersecurity law.
Agu began by thanking Falana and several senior lawyers—including Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, Emeka Obegolu, SAN, Kunle Edun, SAN, Sebastian Anyiam, and John Aikpokpo-Martins—for their interventions during what he called “a political persecution contrived by the executive and dispatched expertly by the judiciary.”
“If you are looking for a victim… look no further.”
Rejecting descriptions of him as a “victor,” Agu said the circumstances surrounding his arrest and prolonged detention in 2023 revealed the judiciary’s complicity in shrinking civic space and undermining constitutional protections.
“We can blame the executive and the security agencies for all we care,” he said. “But what do we say about the judicial officer who signs a remand order against a citizen whose only so-called crime was exercising his right to freedom of speech? What do we say about the magistrate who denies bail and adjourns beyond 14 days in violation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law?”
Agu recounted being arrested on September 23, arraigned on September 25, then denied bail and remanded to prison for 28 days by Magistrate Obinna Njemanze, who advised him to seek bail at the Federal High Court instead. But when his legal team approached the Federal High Court, he said, the bail application faced four adjournments—despite being unchallenged—and was ultimately refused by Justice Joy Chituru Wigwe-Oreh because “no information” had been filed.
“What was more curious,” he said, was the court’s order demanding an additional written address on the propriety of the bail application, even after full arguments had been submitted.
“The judiciary is the gatekeeper, and it has failed.”
Agu warned that Nigeria’s judiciary must shed what he called “the ghost of judicial timidity and timorousness” if it hopes to check executive excesses and protect fundamental freedoms.
“To bridge the justice gaps in press freedom and cyber-security law, our judiciary must imbibe the spirit of courage and bravery,” he said. “If this is not done, the executive and security agencies will continue to shrink the civic space.”
He closed with a stark challenge to the judges in attendance:
“Is the Nigerian judiciary willing to bridge the justice gap but not able to? Then it is impotent. Is it able but not willing? Then it is complicit and malevolent. Is it both able and willing? Then where comes the justice gaps?”
