High Court has ordered the Sierra Leone Bar Association to publish a full list of paid-up members eligible to vote at its upcoming Annual General Meeting, and to provide the association’s members with audited financial statements covering two years.
Justice presiding over the matter issued the directives on 23 July 2026, following an application by Ebunoluwa Tengbe, a member of the Bar, against the SLBA and its eight executive officers, including President Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara and General Secretary Alfred Paul Juwah.
Under the court’s orders, the Bar’s leadership must release the voter roll by 29 July. The court further ruled that eligibility for participation in the AGM and elections shall be determined solely through bank payment slips for registration, subscription, and conference fees paid on or before the 29 May 2026 deadline.
The judges also ordered that the SLBA provide audited financial statements and bank records for the period 1 May 2024 to 1 June 2026, no later than 30 July.
The court explicitly barred any other method of verifying membership or granting access to the AGM venue, directing that all proceedings comply strictly with the association’s memorandum and articles of association.
The Rokel Commercial Bank, named as the 9th defendant in the suit, was not made subject to any specific order in the ruling.
The case, filed under the Companies Act 2009, comes as the SLBA prepares for its annual general meeting, with tensions over membership eligibility and financial transparency surfacing in recent weeks. Neither the Bar leadership nor the applicant had issued public statements on the ruling by press time.