Invasion Of Justice Odili ‘s Home Orchestrated To Intimidate Her — NBA Oji River Branch

Oji River of the Nigerian Bar Association has described the invasion of the Supreme Court Justice, Mary Odili, as an embarrassment.

The branch made this known in a statement sent to TheNigerialawywe by its Chairman. Hon. Seth Nwokolo.

Media reports on Friday indicated that Mrs Odili’s Maitama, Abuja residence, was raided by armed operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC has, however, said its officials did not carry out the raid. Another security agency, SSS, also denied carrying out the raid.

Mrs Odili is the wife of Peter Odili, a former governor of Rivers State, who has been having a running battle with the anti-graft agency.

Recently, the Federal High Court in Abuja restrained the EFCC and other security agencies in the country from arresting or prosecuting Mr Odili on account of his stewardship as governor between 1999 and 2007.

The court’s orders followed a suit that was instituted by Mr Odili against the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) for impounding his international passport upon his return to Nigeria from the United Kingdom in June this year.

The NIS in its defence had informed the presiding judge that it seized Mr Odili’s travelling documents based on a request by the EFCC.

But reacting to the invasion Nwokolo, said “Oji River Branch has condemned in its totality the invasion and siege of the house of Honourable Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili, of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the second most senior Justice of the apex court, after the Chief Justice of Nigeria, by the men of the Nigeria Police led by DSP Lawrence Ajodo, Officer in Charge of Investigation, attached to Joint Panel Recovery of the Ministry of Justice on the complaint of one Aliyu Umar Ibrahim, through a search warrant purportedly signed by an Abuja Magistrate Court.

“The report we got from good authority is that the Order made by the said Magistrate Court has been revoked and that the Honourable Attorney – General of the Federation and Minister forJustice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN has also denied any involvement linking him to this unfortunate attempt by rogues in uniform that are enjoying the taxpayers money not only to cajole the Judiciary but to rubbish and decimate that arm of government that is known to be the hope of common man.

“We are concerned that this is the second time in recent memory that the residences of the Justices of the Supreme Court had been invaded by officers of the security agencies, especially the Department of State Services (DSS). Although the relevant security agencies have come out to deny being involved in the brutish and barbaric attempt to rape our nascent democracy by invasion and laying of siege to the house of the second in command of the apex Court in the land for the second time since the administration of the current Federal Government, having done so by the Department of State Services (DSS) in 2016, we are not convinced.