TheHILL | METRO PLUS| JULY 27.
The Country Director, Citizens’ Solution Network, Mr. Richard Friday Inoyo, has called for the immediate release of the Lagos-based human rights activist and legal practitioner; Inibehe Effiong, who was sent to prison, Wednesday morning, by the Akwa Ibom State Chief Judge, Justice Ekaette Obot.
TheHILL gathered that Justice Obot ordered that Mr. Effiong be remanded in jail for one month over what she called “contemptuous and insulting behaviour in court.”
However, the lawyer in a Facebook Live video he streamed on his verified account, said, he was sent to jail for challenging the Chief Judge about armed policemen who invaded the court wielding AK-47 rifles and for demanding that she recused herself from the case of libel instituted by Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State against Mr. Leo Ekpenyong, another legal practitioner.
Reacting via a statement he titled: “A Call For The Immediate Release Of Inibehe Effiong esq.,” Inoyo described the action of the State’s Chief Judge as being “despicable and shameless.”
“It is with great displeasure that the entire Civilian Population of Citizens’ Solution Network received the status report from Akwa Ibom State Judiciary over the despicable and shameless action taken by Justice Ekaette Obot of the Akwa Ibom State High Court against Inibehe Effiong (Esq) a practicing lawyer who appeared in Court this morning being 27th July, 2022 to defend one Leo Ekpenyong against a petition brought in by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel on the ground of defamation,” part of the statement read.
Continuing, the Principal Consultant, Project Development and Management, Africa Industrialization Group Incorporated, added: “Let it be on public registry that the pronouncement of Justice Ekaette Obot that called for the imprisonment of Inibehe Effiong Esq, over his request that armed police officers be asked to stay outside the court following a formal application that Justice Ekaette Obot recuse herself from the case brought to the law court, is not only unacceptable and despicable, the entire civilian population council considers the action of her lordship as both a travesty of the rule of law and a fragrant abuse of her privilege.
“At this point, we at Citizens’ Solution Network wish to call on the National Judicial Council, to call Justice Ekaette Obot to order and demand that she does not abuse her privileges and office any further.
“For a judiciary that loses ethics and disregard morality in all case of legal representation is not only demanding that the general public takes matter into their hands, it sends a wrong signal that lady justice has gone rogue_a bad omen for not just the legal profession but for the entire country with volatile expectations.
“Let this be the first and last time a sitting judge will use his or her office to promote oppression or stiffen legal representation, for her own professional essence lies within the purview of attending to proceedings and unpacking legal representation from practitioners of the law.”
Meanwhile, apart from Mr. Inoyo, many highly reputable Nigerians and organisations including a civic group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the renowned Human Rights Lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore and others, have condemned the action of the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom, Justice Ekaette Obot.
