Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, has charged the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, to unravel the real motive behind the recent invasion of the residence of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili.
The governor said it was curious that weeks after the obnoxious invasion of Justice Odili’s residence, the magistrate who issued the search warrant had not been interrogated to account for his action.
Wike stated this when he led a delegation of Rivers’ elders and elected representatives to the IGP at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
This was contained in a statement issued by the governor’s Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, made available to our correspondent in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
Wike commended the IGP and his team for the arrest of some of the suspects involved in the condemnable invasion.
However, he charged the police to get to the root of the matter in order to ensure that all those directly or indirectly involved face the full wrath of the law.
The governor said, “We believe we should get to the root of this matter and anybody who is directly or indirectly involved should face the wrath of the law. It does not matter the person’s position.
“That is the only way somebody can stop saying if a Justice of Supreme Court, second in command, could face this, what about the ordinary people? I am quite confident that you will unravel whatever that has happened.”
Wike expressed concern that if all culprits are not arrested and prosecuted, law abiding citizens will be reluctant to grant access to their residence to anyone that brandishes a search warrant at them.
“Nobody has said anything about the magistrate, and we believe that the magistrate is not unknown,” he added.
In his remark, the Inspector General of Police said the suspects involved in the invasion of Justice Odili’s residence were still in police custody amid ongoing investigation.
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On the issue of the magistrate who issued the search warrant, he explained that the police had written to the Chief Registrar of the Federal Capital Territory requesting for his release.
The IGP said, “We wrote a letter to the Chief Registrar of FCT to release the magistrate, and instead of releasing him, they replied our letter, plus his statement to us. So, we don’t want to pick any quarrel.
“What we needed was the statement. We are working with the statement. He has not denied the fact that he issued a search warrant and that is what we wanted to confirm.”
He said based on the confession of one suspect, Lawrence Ajodo, a fake Chief Superintendent of Police, the police had interviewed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, who denied knowledge of him.
According to him, the Attorney General actually confirmed that his ministry had initially constituted recovery team, but that team had since been disbanded, and even its default chairman, is undergoing prosecution by Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
“He, Ajodo, also told us that he was the one who lifted the AGF signature from another document and imposed it on his identify card,” the IGP stated.
The governor was accompanied by Senators Betty Apiafi, George Sekibo, Barry Mpigi, Lee Maeba, Olaka Nwogu, the Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani.
Others include former presidents of the Nigerian Bar Association, Onueze C.J Okocha, (SAN) and Okey Wali, former Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Sekibo, Mr. Ledum Mitee. (Punch)
