Report has it that since July 28, 2024, the law maker has been in prison and the NBA has done nothing about it. However, today, the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference in Enugu was disrupted as protesters stormed the venue to demand the immediate release of Hon. Bright Ngene, a jailed member of the Enugu State House of Assembly and practising lawyer.
Constituents of Enugu South Urban State Constituency on Monday stormed the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) annual general conference at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Enugu, in a peaceful protest over the continued incarceration of Bright Ngene, a lawyer and winner of the constituency seat election.
Ngene, a member of the Labour Party, won the Enugu South 1 State Constituency seat in the March 2023 elections but was jailed following what his supporters described as a “baseless and politically motivated” criminal charge after an appeal tribunal quashed his election in 2023.
While still in prison, he, however, won the by-election conducted by the INEC on August 16, 2025.
Speaking at the protest, spokesperson of the group, Kachukwu Benedict, explained that the continued incarceration of Ngene despite winning re-election from detention in the August 16, 2025, rerun, amounted to “grave injustice and a subversion of democracy.”
“We are here to register our peaceful protest to tell the world what has been happening in Enugu State for the past year. Since July 28, 2024, Hon. Bright Emeka Ngene, who won the House of Assembly seat for Enugu South Urban, has been unjustly incarcerated,