By Adesina Soyooye
After days of silence, the Supreme Court of Nigeria has reacted, very strongly, to the inexplicable invasion of the official home of one of its Justices, Mary Peter-Odili.
Justice Odili’s home was invaded in the evening of Friday, October 29, by a combined team of security men who claimed they came to execute a search warrant on her residence.
The incident was met with outrage across the country and beyond. Even though the search was eventually not executed, as the Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, who signed the warrant revoked it, claiming he was deceived, no security arm of the Government has claimed responsibility.
In a rare reaction to the scandalous incident conveyed in a statement signed by its Director of Press and Information, Akande Festus, the Supreme Court said it has had enough of impunity, and the treatment of the Judiciary as a whipping dog.
It described the invasion of Justice Peter-Odili’s home as “uncivilized and shameful show of primitive force on innocent judicial officer.”
And, aligned with the Government and people of Rivers State that the invasion was a mission to kill and maim. In sum, it was assassination attempt on Justice Peter-Odili and her family.
It said it has started its own discreet investigation, and would get to the root of the embarrassing incident.
Reads the statement in part:
“We are alarmed with the news of the unwarranted and despicable raid on the official residence of one of our senior justices in the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili on Friday 29” October, 2021 in a Gestapo manner.
“The attack unfortunately depicted a gory picture of war by some armed persons suspected to be security operatives representing different agencies of government who seemed to have come to kill and maim their target under the guise of undertaking a search whose warrant was questionable and baseless.
“We are deeply saddened and taken aback by this uncivilized and shameful show of primitive force on an innocent judicial officer that has so far spent several years of her productive life serving the country she calls her own.
“This incident brought back, rather painfully, the ugly memory of the October 2016 midnight invasion of the homes of our respected justices with no satisfactory explanations as to the true motive behind such brazen assault on our collective sensibility.
“We wish to make it abundantly clear that the Nigerian Judiciary is the third arm of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and should be respected and treated as such.
“We have had a full dosage of this fusillade of unwarranted and unprovoked attacks on our judicial officers and even facilities across the country and we say it loudly now that enough is enough.
“The judiciary should never be misconstrued by any individual or institution of government as the weeping child among the three arms of government that must always be chastised and ridiculed to silence because of our conservative disposition.
“Though there have emerged discordant tunes from the various security agencies that allegedly participated in the dastardly act, we are not lying tow on this dehumanizing treatment meted out to one of our own.
“We have commenced a full-scale independent investigation to unravel the true masquerades behind the mystery as well as the real motives behind the whole imbroglio.
“Similarly, we call on the Inspector General of Police of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to rise up to the occasion by carrying out a discreet investigation and make his findings known to the Nigerian public with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice as quickly as possible.
“The Nigerian Judiciary cannot only bark, but can also bite. We can no longer be treated with disdain and levity. The rule of law and constitutionality must govern our conduct so that we can tag along with the comity of nations and be taken seriously too.”
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, Salami, under whose office the invading security agents were said to have operated from, issued a statement, denying complicity. He has ordered a probe into it.
The Police, the DSS and the EFCC, all denied knowledge of the raid. The Inspector General of Police has also ordered a detailed probe.
Both the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA,and the Body of SANs, have expressed outrage. While the NBA in a statement signed by its President, Olumide Akpata, vowed to get to the root of the incident, the Body of SANs on Tuesday, visited Malami over the issue.
