Invasion of Justice Odili’s residence by EFCC show of primitive force: Supreme Court

The court said it has commenced an investigation to unravel the “true masquerades” and “real motives” behind the raid.

News Agency of Nigeria • November 2, 2021

Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad

The Supreme Court has described the failed raid of Justice Mary Odili’s residence as uncivilised and a shameful show of primitive force on an innocent judicial officer.

“We are deeply saddened and taken aback by this uncivilised and shameful show of force on an innocent judicial officer that has spent several years of her productive life serving the country she calls her own,” the apex court said in a statement on Tuesday.

In its first reaction to the ugly situation, the supreme court, in the statement by its Director of Press and Information, Akande Festus, said the raid was reminiscent of that carried out by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) in 2016.

“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,” the court said.

In the statement, the court said “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.”

Requesting that the judiciary be respected, the court said it had “a full dosage of this fusillade of unwarranted and unprovoked attacks on our judicial officers, and even our facilities across the country, and we say, enough is enough.”

The court said despite the denial by security agencies that “participated in the dastardly act,” it had “commenced a full-scale independent investigation to unravel the true masquerades behind the mystery as well as the real motives behind the whole incident.”

They also called on the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to rise up to the occasion by carrying out a discreet investigation and to make his findings known to the Nigerian public with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice as quickly as possible.

(NAN)

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