The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has said its forthcoming Annual General Conference (AGC) in Port Harcourt is not compensation for the body’s botched conference in the state in 2025, which was subsequently relocated to Enugu State.
 
NBA President, Afam Osigwe, SAN, stated this in Port Harcourt yesterday during a media briefing organised by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the forthcoming 66th NBA Annual General Conference.
 
Earlier, the Chairman of the LOC for the NBA AGC, Tonye Krukrubo, SAN, disclosed that the association’s 2026 conference, with the theme, ‘Beyond Limits,’ will hold in Port Harcourt from Friday, August 21, to August 28 at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Elekahia, in Port Harcourt.
 
Recall that the NBA had, in 2025, suddenly relocated its scheduled AGC from Port Harcourt to Enugu, citing the state of emergency then in place and the appointment of an administrator, which it said was undemocratic and unconstitutional.
 
Following the conference’s relocation to Enugu, the then Administrator of Rivers State, retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, had, in a statement by his media aide, Hector Igbikiowubo, asked the NBA to return the N300 million allegedly released to the association as support by the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, before the latter’s suspension by President Bola Tinubu by reason of the emergency rule.
 
Ibas also threatened to take legal action to recover state funds from the NBA if it refused to comply with the reimbursement call after deciding to move the conference out of the state.

However, Osigwe, while answering a question directed at him, reiterated that the NBA had made its position clear at the time that the conference would return to the oil-rich state when democratic institutions were fully restored there, insisting that the decision to do so now should not be viewed as restitution.
 
He stated: “I know that some of us sometimes want to use these hotels. We will be using them on your behalf for the time being. So just indulge us for a week or thereabouts.

“Port Harcourt is a beautiful city; it’s a very historical city. And in the annals of the history of the Bar, it occupies the pride of place, both for good and for bad, but more for the good.
 
“And it is a practice of the NBA to take the conference from one city to the other. It gives us a better opportunity to get to know the different people’s culture and places in Nigeria.
 
“Port Harcourt happens to be our destination this year. At the moment, over (23,000) lawyers are expected to descend on Port Harcourt. And they will come with service providers, contractors, and other people that provide ancillary services.”