A lawyer and former Treasurer of the Abuja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chigbo Princess Mediatrix, has been reported dead.
According to an online platform, barristerng.com, her lifeless body was discovered by the roadside along the Kubwa expressway within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The platform said the discovery was made by a commuter heading to work, who noticed the body lying near the Dawaki area, opposite Gwarimpa Estate.
According to the platform, “preliminary findings suggest that the deceased may have fallen victim to suspected mobile armed robbers, popularly known as ‘one chance’ operators, who are notorious for targeting unsuspecting commuters within the Federal Capital Territory.
“Eyewitness accounts indicate that the circumstances surrounding her death point to a violent encounter.
“A handbag believed to belong to the deceased was found some distance away from her body, reinforcing suspicions that she may have been robbed and possibly pushed out of a moving vehicle.
“The incident has sent shockwaves across the legal community and the wider public, once again drawing attention to the persistent security threats faced by residents and commuters on major highways in Abuja.
The Nigeria Police Force, Dawaki Division, has been duly notified and has since taken custody of the body. Investigations into the cause and circumstances of her death are expected to commence immediately.
“The police have appealed to members of the public who may know the deceased or her family to come forward. Relatives are advised to contact the Nigeria Police Force, Dawaki Division, located opposite Gwarimpa Estate along the Kubwa Expressway, Abuja, for identification and further information.”
Meanwhile, a group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has expressed displeasure over the continuous daring operations being carried out by “one-chance armed robbers in the FCT.”
HURIWA said the development indicates a clear absence of any sort of preventive security strategy and a strange lack of political and competent leadership in the nation’s capital.
HURIWA said the federal government did not have to wait for these killings of citizens to continue unabated before a major political decision was made to appoint a much more focused, committed, non-partisan patriotic technocrat to provide good governance, security of lives and property, sustainable development, and tranquillity to the good people of the FCT.
It described the recent killing of two women in the FCT, including a nurse, by gangs of armed one-chance robbers as clear signs that those appointed to provide good governance, stability, and security of lives and property of the residents and citizens of the FCT are engaged in other external activities unrelated to the core objectives of the essence of their appointments by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The group recalled that the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives Federal Health Institutions Sector on Tuesday expressed heartbreak over the killing of Nurse Chinemerem Chukwumeziem of the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja.
HURIWA stated that the killing of this Nurse and many others could have been prevented if the political authorities in the FCT were made up of persons of dedicated service and by non-political administrators committed to delivering selfless services to citizens of Nigeria resident and engaging in lawful business activities in the FCT.
It added, “But, as it has become notorious, those assigned with the onerous task of protecting the lives and property of Abuja residents are totally distracted by the politics of the next year’s general election, thereby neglecting their primary responsibility as enshrined in the constitution of Nigeria.”
The group recalled that it was not just one person but indeed two women who were found dead in separate locations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in incidents suspected to be linked to the activities of notorious “one chance” criminal gangs operating within Nigeria’s capital.
One of the victims, Chinemerem Pascalina Chuwumeziem, was a nurse with the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, whose killing subsequently drew condemnation from the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), FCT Council.
The second victim, identified as Princess Ochigbo, was said to be found lying lifeless by the roadside, with indications suggesting she might also have fallen victim to “one chance” hoodlums.
In the statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA urged President Bola Tinubu to appoint Mr. Nyesom Wike as his Director General for his presidential bid for 2027 so that a fresh, competent, totally focused professional administrator and technocrat is appointed to provide the much desired governance standards in the FCT, given that the lives of citizens are no longer safe
The group wonders why the security forces in the FCT seemed to have gone to sleep and have proved to be incapable or unwilling to map out an effective preventive security strategy to curb the incessant cases of bloody attacks by one chance armed robbers in the FCT.
The group said the government should give the citizens the right and licences to carry military-grade AK-49 guns to protect themselves because the right to self-defence is constitutionally imperative and indeed provided for in Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution under Section 33, which is binding and enforceable.
HURIWA recalled that globally, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 is essentially, is the foundation and the fundamental of contemporary human rights law, including the right to life.
It added that in Nigeria, the right to life as a constitutionally guaranteed right is protected under Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, as amended). While Section 33 strongly affirms the sanctity of life, its subsections 2(a) (b)(c) provide certain exceptions which legal scholars say pose formidable challenges to the absolute nature of this right.
HURIWA argued that since the FCT administration has demonstrated a clear absence of any sort of preventive security strategy to curb the constant killings of residents by one chance robbers and other armed criminal non-state actors, the president should direct that citizens be granted the legal permits to bear arms for self-defence.
