Ordinarily, having served 15 days in the Ikot Ekpene Correctional facility, one would have thought that my friend would regain his freedom today in order to breath the fresh air like every other person in the society. Sadly, that’s is not to be as my Lord’s conviction warrant expressly indicated a full one Month imprisonment order against my colleague.
And today, rather than let him go, he has been relocated to the Uyo correctional facility like a common criminal in the most atrocious and condemnable manner.
To my learned Seniors, colleagues and friends who continue to delight themselves in this unjustifiable tragedy, but failed woefully to comment on the propriety or otherwise of the procedure adopted by His lordship in convicting Inibehe Effiong including the unusual act of inviting armed policemen with AK47 inside the courtroom on the very day the incident took place, I do hope we do not forget in the haste the inevitable law of karma!!.
As lawyers and litigants, we are all witnesses to the undisputable fact that armed officers including policemen are usually stationed outside the court premises during court’s proceedings no matter how notorious a criminal who’s standing trial may be. Just few days ago, one Uduak Akpan who murdered one Miss Iniubong Umoren, the innocent jobseeker sometime last year was finally convicted with a life imprisonment and death sentences by the trial judge Hon. Justice Bassey Nkanang after going through tedious and rigorous trial exercise.
All through those period of trial, there was never a day any of the officers were invited into the courtroom with rifles by the trial judge in the guise of taming Uduak Akpan’s violent behaviour, so why bring them in a civil case? And what’s contemptuous in asking the court to direct the officers with AK47 to please leave the courtroom to enable counsel discharge his professional duty appropriately for his client?
As I continue to seek answers to the above questions, may I once again on behalf of my colleague, express our profound gratitude to all concerned Nigerians for continuous solidarity and selfless sacrifices. Your name shall indeed be written in the annals by the posterity. God bless us all.
Credit: Barr Augustine Asuquo, his colleague at Inibehe Effiong Chambers writes
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