A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has pleaded with the kidnappers of Justice Chioma Iheme-Nwosu to release her unhurt.
Iheme-Nwosu, was last Wednesday kidnapped along the Benin-Agbor Road, Edo State, by gunmen who also killed her police orderly.
Ozekhome in a statement said the abduction of Iheme-Nwosu in broad daylight in Benin City, was the saddest reminder of a beleaguered nation in the asphyxiating throes of death by instalment.
He stated that Iheme-Nwosu’s Police orderly who accompanied her was brutally killed and dismembered in the process, in a most horrific manner, sent the chill down the spines of people.
Ozekhome said, “This is a noblewoman of high virtue, a fecund mind and one of the finest jurists of great erudition, currently dispensing justice in our intermediate Court, the Court of Appeal.
“It is heart-rending that Nigeria has been turned into a gruesome and crimson theatre of blood, with absolutely no government protection in sight.
“I beg you, captors or kidnappers of Justice Chioma, in the name of Almighty God to please release her unhurt. See her as your mother that you would never do anything to hurt no matter the circumstances. I beg you also in the name of humanity and of womanhood, as you read this, to set free, unharmed, unmolested and unhurt, this judicial amazon. Please, please, please. I beg you.”
The prominent lawyer said it was said that while Nigerians are being mauled down across the nooks and crannies of the country, politicians are ever busy politicking, instead of spreading democracy dividends.
He stated that it was surprising that politicians are already busy, strategising and plotting for 2023 even while the ink was yet to dry on paper as regards the February, 2019 elections.
According to him, Nigeria has become overheated and over politicised enclave; with no space for genuine governance.
He stated that the masses are hapless and are the victims of societal degeneracy and misplaced values.
According to him, judicial officers are not provided the right environment for their safety. And for the effective performance of their duties.
Ozekhome said, “The Judiciary, the weakest and whipping child of the three arms of government is mostly at the receiving end.
“A minister or Senator (both of the Executive and Legislative arms of government, respectively), can afford to travel in convoys of fully armed security operatives. A Judge is mercifully left with just one policeman, usually armed with obsolete firearms. He is plucked down and dismembered like a chicken.
“Yet, the judge, especially Justices of the Court of Appeal, must traverse the nation, handling never-ending sensitive appeals from election petition tribunals, in jurisdictions other than their ordinarily accustomed places of abode or sitting.
“They are thus compelled by the cause and course of duty to travel by road, the very bad roads that are unmanned by security personnel. They thus fall easy prey to marauders.”
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