The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) yesterday vowed to get to the bottom of last Friday’s raid on the home of Justice Mary Odili. It demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari set up an independent investigative panel to unravel those behind the incident. NBA President Olumide Akpata, who met with journalists in Lagos, warned that should the President fail to so act, lawyers would take legal action. “As I speak to you, letters are being written to the President, National Assembly…I am saying to you that if we don’t see action in two weeks, then we’ll move to plan B,” Akpata said.
Akpata raised several posers for the government officials. He said: “If all the relevant government agencies deny authorising the raid on the premises of a Justice of the Supreme Court, then who authorised the operation? Who took the decision to approach the Magistrate for the search warrant? What if the team had succeeded and any form of harm had befallen His Lordship? Who would have taken responsibility?
“Today it is the residence of Peter-Odili, JSC, who will be the subject of such raid tomorrow? What of the potential impact of this raid on the morale and psyche of other judicial officers? Are they truly expected to dispense justice without fear or favour under this dark cloud? Can they go to bed in peace without the fear of being visited by rogue security operatives?
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The NBA president explained that this was why he had set up a special investigator, Monday Ubani, to lead its investigation of the matter. He said: “It is for this and other reasons that I have appointed the Chairman of the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law (NBA-SPIDEL), Dr. Monday Ubani to serve as the NBA’s Special Investigator to inter-alia unmask those behind the attack on Justice Odili’s home and to ensure that these individuals are made to face the Law.” He noted that the IGP had ordered an investigation and that some of the policemen involved had been arrested, but said that is not enough. “We therefore demand that the veil of secrecy behind which those who directed the said officers are hiding must be torn to shreds for them all to also be brought to justice. There should be no sacred cows,’ he said.
Akpata said: “We note that the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN has reportedly agreed to make himself available for investigation. This is consistent with the position taken by the NBA National Executive Council that the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation definitely has some questions to answer. However, in order not to breach the rule of natural justice especially the rule against being a judge in one’s own cause, we would be insisting that the Attorney General of the Federation is investigated by the above-mentioned independent Panel of Inquiry.”
He pledged that should the AGF be indicted, the NBA would not hesitate to take the matter to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC). Akpata further disclosed that the Magistrate who signed the search warrant executed on Justice Odili’s house is under investigation by the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court.