By Ike Uchechukwu
IKOM—For years, the men and women who walked into Cross River State’s courtrooms to seek justice did so under leaking roofs, past cracked walls, and beneath ceilings that had long given up the fight against time and neglect. In Ikom, Central Cross River, justice had a smell of dust and abandonment, and a look of quiet defeat.
Today, that story has changed not because the government remembered its duty, but because the very people who serve justice refused to keep waiting for a government that, in their words, had “turned deaf ears.”
Out of sheer frustration, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikom Branch, alongside community leaders, business owners and private individuals, did what many say the Cross River State Government should have done years ago: they raised N18 million out of their own pockets to renovate the High Court 2 building in Ikom, a structure stakeholders say had become a symbol of everything wrong with judicial infrastructure in the state.
The rebuilt courtroom was commissioned days ago by the state Chief Judge, Justice Akon Bassey Ikpeme, in a ceremony that oscillated between pride in what lawyers had achieved and quiet anger at what government had failed to do.
A court reborn from frustration
The renovation, NDV gathered, covered a complete new roof, modern glass windows, fresh ceilings, tiled flooring, new furniture, a solar-powered electricity system, a public address system, and a refurbished judge’s chambers; basic amenities that should ordinarily be government-funded, but which, in Cross River, became the burden of private citizens.
The NBA Ikom Chairman, Tah Edwardson Offre, painted a chilling picture of just how dire things had become before the community stepped in.
According to him, lawyers had in the past resorted to “partitive repairs” on the courts, but these efforts were not sustainable, forcing a more decisive intervention.
“In the last two assizes, we lamented the complete neglect of the judiciary in the state and highlighted some court halls that are totally dilapidated and in horrible state like the High Court II Ikom, Magistrate Courts 1 & II Ikom, the Okundi Magistrate Court hall that was blown away by rainstorm over 15 years ago among others,” he said.
He disclosed further that disaster seemed to trail the courts relentlessly. A tree fell and destroyed the Magistrate Court 2 & 3 Hall in Ikom, forcing presiding magistrates to relocate into an old mud building with cracked walls and no proper ceiling.
As though that was not tragic enough, fire, allegedly caused by an arsonist, gutted the iconic Magistrate Court 1 building on April 23, 2026.
It was against this backdrop of decay, disaster and government silence that the Presiding Judge of High Court 2 Ikom, Hon. Justice Emmanuel Ubua, sought and received the Chief Judge’s blessing to lead a crowdfunding rescue mission.
“The work includes the re-roofing of the building, fixing of new ceilings and glass windows, tiling of the Court Hall and furnishing of the Court Hall and Judge’s chambers. We also installed a modern public address system as well as solar panels for regular power supply,” Offre explained.
I was depressed,
Chief Judge recalls
For Justice Akon Bassey Ikpeme, the transformation of the Ikom court was almost too good to believe. She recalled how different and painful her last visit had been.
“As I listened to the Ikom chairman, I noticed, God just brought me at the right time, what I’ve seen is wonderful. The last time I came here I was a bit depressed, but today the story is different. I thank you for having the mind to go ahead to get contributions that were put to good use, I give you kudos for that,” she said.
But even in her praise, there was a warning wrapped in gratitude, a plea for the community to now protect what they had built with sweat and sacrifice: “I don’t want to hear that thieves broke in, we’ll try to get approval to get some security men to secure this place,” Ikpeme added.
This place was an eyesore,
Judge who refused to give up
Justice Emmanuel Ubua, who presides over the newly renovated hall, did not hide his emotions either, describing what the court used to look like before the intervention.
“My Lord the CJ, because our infrastructure in Ikom was one that we could not dispense justice,when I sought approval to manage this project, she didn’t hesitate,” he said.
“I thank NBA Ikom and the entire Ikom community generally who agreed that this place was an eyesore, the court hall is supposed to be a sanctuary, a dignified place with assurance of justice but what we met here was terrible, the walls were falling apart, and the roof was leaking all over,” he said.
‘If government won’t help us, let’s help ourselves’
Beyond Ikom, lawyers at the event pointed to a wider rot, comparing Cross River’s courts unfavourably to those in neighbouring states. They noted that Ebonyi, Rivers and Benue boast better judicial infrastructure, accusing successive administrations in Cross River of neglecting the judiciary “from Calabar to Obudu.”
Their frustration crystallised into a rallying cry that reverberated through the commissioning ground: “If the government is not willing to help us, for God’s sake, let’s help ourselves.”
A bittersweet commissioning
In the end, the commissioning of the Ikom High Court 2 was celebrated with pride, but the mood was far from purely triumphant. Stakeholders expressed mixed feelings, proud of what the community will have achieved, yet deeply troubled that it had to come to this: private citizens taxing themselves to build what taxpayers’ money was meant to provide.
