The last has not been heard of the NBA SPIDEL 2025 election imbroglio as one of the candidates, Dr. Anne Uruegi Agi has released a statement on the elections.
MY POSITION ON THE EVENTS SURROUNDING THE 2025 SPIDEL ELECTIONS - DR. ANNE AGI
Dear colleagues, good afternoon.
When the Electoral Committee of our Section (the Section on Public Interest and Development Law-SPIDEL) issued the notice of elections and called for nominations, I complied fully with the process. I downloaded the nomination form, completed it for the office of Secretary, and submitted it within the stipulated timeline. The Committee neither queried nor faulted my documents. In the report of the committee, published by a member, I was not just recorded as the only validly nominated and qualified candidate for that office, I was the only candidate who applied for that office. This notice was public. Neither the president nor any member of his executive complained.
In keeping with the guidelines, I expected the list of cleared candidates to be published. It was not released before the elections. As the election day approached, rumour began to circulate that a different list was being prepared. I refused to rely on rumours and waited for due process to follow its course.
Before the conference, I placed a call to the Caretaker Chairman, Prof. Paul Ananaba SAN, Paul Ananaba San to respectfully inform him of my intention. He acknowledged it and stated that he had no objection to my candidature. He then added that I should call Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins to persuade him to step down from the chairmanship race and that once I succeeded, my candidature would present no issues. I was to call him back after I had carried out this assignment. I did not consider this request appropriate and did not act on it.
Indeed, I am not so desperate to be SPIDEL Secretary that I would be moved to do what was being proposed, just to be secretary. It's not that serious!
While at the SPIDEL Conference in Uyo, I was informed that a meeting had been held on Tuesday, 2 December. Present at that meeting were the NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe SAN, the Caretaker Chairman, Prof. Ananaba SAN, Dr. Monday Ubani, SAN, Mr. John Aikpokpo Martins, Mr. Kunle Edun, SAN, Mrs. Princess Frank-Chukwuani, Dr. Uju Agomoh and several senior members of the Section. I was further informed that at this meeting, the electoral committee chairman sought to present the electoral committee report, but the same was jettisoned (grounds upon which he resigned). I was further informed that the issue of my candidature was discussed, and the NBA President reportedly stated categorically that he did not want me. He then personally put forward the name of my branch chairman, Mr. Enome Amatey, who was present at that meeting, as the person he preferred for the office of Secretary. My Chairman did not submit a form for that office or any office.
When the full account of the midnight meeting was brought to my attention, I reached out to some of those who attended to understand whether the reports were true and what position the elders of the Section had taken. The feedback I received was disheartening. I was informed that since the NBA President stated clearly that he wanted neither me as Secretary nor Mr. John Aikpokpo Martins as Chairman, those present felt there was nothing they could do, but comply.
One may wonder why I should be of such consequence that an NBA president would sit in a meeting and insist that I must not emerge as secretary of SPIDEL. I am little me, after all. The reason is neither complex nor speculative. The President has long been upset that I did not support or vote for him in the NBA elections. This is not conjecture. He told me so himself two years before he even contested. In 2022, I called him to invite him to my book launch. Rather than receive the invitation, he expressed great anger and said a close friend of mine had told him I was not going to vote for him in 2024, but for Chukwuka Ikwuazom, SAN. He threatened to reveal the name of this friend. I waited. He never did. The call ended. From that moment, every chance meeting was coloured with hostility. I could not understand why anyone would be upset over an election that was still two years away.
After his inauguration, I simply kept my distance.
When I was later approached by a mentor and respected learned senior counsel to serve as Chief Rapporteur of the 2025 NBA Annual General Conference, I declined because of my schedule. When he insisted, I explained the reasons, including my concern that the NBA President would not approve it. The learned senior counsel disagreed and said he would call the president to confirm. The call was made. As I predicted, the NBA President vetoed it. His initial excuse was that I had served as Chief Rapporteur at the 2024 AGC and failed to submit the conference communique. When this got to me, I clarified that I was not the Chief Rapporteur for that Conference. When this was conveyed to the President, he then admitted that the real issue was that I did not vote for him. To avoid misunderstandings, I sent a WhatsApp message to the NBA President correcting the wrong assumption about my involvement in the 2024 AGC and non submission of a communique and moved on.
When the SPIDEL Caretaker Committee was setting up the CPC for the SPIDEL 2025 Conference, I was approached on 2 occasions to serve. I declined again because I knew the NBA President would oppose it.
When the SPIDEL elections approached, I decided to take a chance to serve the section because I believed that a democratic process would prevail, the offices being elective. I believed that SPIDEL, a section that prides itself on public interest and the rule of law, would uphold its own rules. I was wrong.
On the 4th of December, 2025, despite all the rumors, I decided to go to the SPIDEL AGM myself to see whether or not the elders of the Section would keep the banner pristine as they had espoused at the different panels of the conference.
At the AGM, the caretaker leadership announced that the Electoral Committee report had been rejected because of alleged errors, and since they was no time to conduct elections, certain other persons had been selected to man the affairs of the section. Mr. Nasarawa, a member of the electoral committee, then presented a report of the electoral committee different from what is in circulation, to the effect that there were irregularities in the committees work, hence the need to select persons to man the affairs of the section. Some of the irregularities he claimed, included the fact that some persons had been disqualified for non payment of BPF, even when they had network issues. He also informed us that the electoral committee Chairman, Mr. Kunle Edun, SAN had resigned, and he had been directed to present this new report to the AGM.
Yet the original electoral committee report itself has been circulated by a member of the committee and shows that the Committee carried out its mandate in accordance with the published guidelines. It shows clearly that I was validly nominated, unopposed, and qualified for the office of secretary. The only apparent problem was that some preferred aspirants were disqualified on legitimate grounds.
Mr. Nasarawa then reeled out the names of these selected persons, and my name was announced miraculously as a council member, even though I never applied for that position. On the floor of the house, I immediately objected. I made it clear that I did not agree to the truncation of the electoral process and that I would not be pacified by being handed a position I neither sought nor applied for. I requested that my name be immediately removed, and it was. All other selected members were called out, and those individuals came forward and were presented to the meeting as the new executives of the section. A motion was moved and seconded by those recognised by the interim Committee Chairman, Prof. Paul Ananaba, SAN, adopting the selected persons, and all individuals who sought to take counter motions were denied.
The result is that persons who did not go through the legitimate electoral process, including persons earlier disqualified, were announced as the new leadership of SPIDEL.
This action undermines the Electoral Committee, disregards the guidelines and the NBA Constitution, and nullifies the effort of those of us who complied with every requirement. For the office of Secretary, for which I was validly nominated and unopposed, another person was declared Secretary without any election.
It has been said that some of those present at the meeting on Tuesday night, including learned senior advocates, stated openly that they could not contradict the NBA President when he objected to my candidature. I find this profoundly troubling. The leadership of Sections has never been determined by the unilateral preferences of an NBA President. What happened in SPIDEL is an anomaly and a personal vendetta carried too far. It is even more disturbing that men we consider elders of the Bar sat through it in silence.
None of these elders of the section, whom I once held in high esteem, thought it necessary to call me or explain the decision taken at this midnight meeting. Instead, they assumed that inserting my name as a council member would somehow placate me, a position I understand was equally not acceptable to the NBA president. There assumed wrong. This is not a Council I want to be associated with.
Much has been said about sacrifice for SPIDEL. If there is anyone who has sacrificed, quietly and consistently, it is I. We do not publicise the work we do, but the work exists. Until the last administration was suspended, I was the Editor-in-Chief of the SPIDEL Newsletter and produced the first ever official publication of SPIDEL housing articles by members. (The soft copy is attached and printed copies are at the NBA Secretariat). Yet I now hear SPIDEL elders are making phone calls and falsely claiming I abandoned the section, to justify their illegal actions.
Dear colleagues, I am done. Let those who wish to become SPIDEL executives by any means carry on. I will not be part of anything that undermines SPIDEL. The manner in which this exclusion and imposition was executed is nauseating and makes it clear that the years I have devoted to this section are not valued. I would rather invest my time and service elsewhere.
A section that speaks loudly on public interest, due process, and the rule of law must hold itself to those same standards. When gatekeepers forget this, when the procedure is discarded, and when personal grievance becomes the compass, the Section loses its moral voice.
This entire episode has been a sober lesson on betrayal, the fragility of integrity, and the emptiness of friendship when power is involved. Persons I considered to be men of integrity could not say no or take a stand when it mattered. It's very revealing!
Dear colleagues, I owe you all the truth. This is my record. This is for my peace of mind.
There is a righteous judge.
I remain my father's daughter.
Dr. Anne Uruegi Agi
P/S: In the next post, I will respond to the latest NBA publication about me.
