Lawyers in Enugu State on Tuesday escalated their protest against the prolonged absence of judges in courtrooms by sealing off a High Court in Obollo-Afor, Nsukka Judicial Zone, paralysing judicial activities in the area.
The action, led by members of the Nigerian Bar Association from Nsukka and Obollo-Afor branches, was in response to what they described as the continued refusal of judges posted to the Enugu North Senatorial District to conduct physical sittings for over three years.
The protesting lawyers, who had earlier embarked on a boycott of court proceedings, accused the state judiciary of abandoning the affected judicial divisions under the guise of security concerns, opting instead for virtual hearings which they said had hampered access to justice.
Our correspondent gathered that the protest followed an earlier demonstration held on June 3, 2026, when lawyers marched through major streets in Nsukka to register their grievances over the development.
The agitation has affected all five judicial divisions in the district—Nsukka, Obollo-Afor, Enugu-Ezike, Ogbede, and Umulokpa—with legal practitioners insisting that the continued reliance on virtual proceedings was unacceptable.
In a communiqué jointly issued by the NBA branches, the lawyers specifically faulted the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Afojulu Raymond Ozoemena, accusing him of failing to address repeated complaints from lawyers and court workers in the district.
They alleged that judges assigned to the area had not held physical court sessions for years, a situation they said had crippled the administration of justice and subjected litigants to undue hardship.
The communiqué further criticised the relocation of active case files from local judicial divisions to Enugu, the state capital, describing the move as a “deliberate bureaucratic bottleneck” that has worsened delays in the justice system.
The lawyers maintained that their ongoing boycott of court sittings, which has lasted over two weeks, would continue until their demands for the immediate resumption of physical court proceedings are met.
They called on the Enugu State judiciary to urgently restore normal court operations across the affected divisions, warning that failure to act could deepen the justice crisis in the region.
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