Crisis hits Oyo judiciary as Judges, Lawyers hold parallel New Legal Year events (see venues)

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan Branch, has announced a boycott of all activities for the 2026/2027 New Legal Year, organised by the Oyo State Judiciary.
The branch’s publicity secretary, Mr Raheed Khan, announced the resolution in a statement on Sunday night in Ibadan.
The branch said it unanimously reached the boycott decision at its General Meeting convened on Saturday.
It said the decision followed deliberations on recent administrative directives from the judiciary leadership, especially the decision to prevent the Bar’s chairman from addressing the event.
The branch said administration of justice is built upon a sacred symbiosis between the Bench and the Bar, as co-equal custodians of the rule of law.
It stated that the annual New Legal Year ceremony was an institution of accountability, reflection and constructive discourse, not a mere judicial pageant.
According to the branch, its chairman’s address serves as the canonical medium through which the Bar presents systemic observations and advocates for judicial efficiency.
It, therefore, said the judiciary leadership’s unilateral decision to excise and suppress the Bar chairman’s address was an existential affront to the Bar’s collective dignity.
“To deny the Bar its historic voice during a state ceremony is to relegate legal practitioners from equal partners to mere passive spectators,” it stated.
It added that silence in the face of such structural marginalisation would set a perilous precedent for the profession’s future.
The branch, therefore, said it would hold an independent New Legal Year ceremony to celebrate the event on its own terms.
According to the branch, the alternative event is scheduled for Monday at 10a.m. at the Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, Bar Centre, NTC Road, Ibadan.
It stated that participants would be fully robed in wig and gown.
The branch said that its collective absence from the judiciary’s ceremonies and resolute presence at the Bar Centre would send an unmistakable message.
It added that history measures a Bar not by the ease of its compliance, but by the firmness of its convictions.
“Let posterity record that when the voice of the Bar was threatened with erasure, the Ibadan Bar stood as one, unshaken, unbroken, dignified, and unapologetic,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State judiciary had scheduled the 2026/ 2027 Legal Year Service to be held on Monday.
It was slated to be held simultaneously at the Cathedral of St. James, Oke-Bola, Ibadan, and the Oyo State Judiciary Mosque, High Court Premises, Ring Road, Ibadan.