Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, gave the Federal Government 48 hours to reveal the intruders who broke into Justice Mary Odili’s home on Sunday.
Governor Wike, speaking at a press conference with Rivers State Leaders of Thought at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, said a series of events have shown that the Odili family is being targeted and that the security agents’ invasion of Justice Odili’s home on Friday was an assassination attempt.
He insisted that the government must take action against all those involved, noting that it is not enough for government agencies to claim ignorance of the invasion.
The fact that some people entered Justice Odili’s house after participating in the Bayelsa State election panel was not a coincidence, according to Wike.
On his return from abroad, her husband, former Rivers governor Chief Peter Odili’s passport was seized, followed by an invasion of her Abuja residence on Friday, he said.
If the federal government claims it is not involved in the invasion, he says it must take steps to persuade the public that it is.
Wike stated that the people of Rivers State will hold the federal government accountable if anything happens to any member of the Odili family.
The governor said it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, recalling the case of late Justice Sylvester Ogwuta, who he said may have died as a result of the trauma of security agents breaking into his home. In a related development, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives condemned the raid on Justice Peter-home Odili’s on Sunday.
The invasion was described as “a repudiation of judicial independence and an assault on the sanctity of the nation’s judiciary” this was made by the chairman committee Honourable Onofiok Luke, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja.
According to the committee, “this unfortunate development is also a wake-up call to tighten administrative and supervisory control over the operations of law enforcement agencies in the country.
“On this note, the House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary calls for a discreet investigation to unravel the persons behind this ignoble act, which is capable of straining the existing relationship between the judiciary and the executive arms of our democratic government.”
The committee, while condemning in totality such ignoble action, pledged to every effort at ensuring the sanctity of the nation’s judiciary and assured its continuous support to the independence of the nation’s judiciary.
The committee said, “It is mind-boggling that in the dusk of 29 October 2021, the judiciary was once again exposed to public opprobrium due to the uncanny manner in which the residence of the Honourable Justice Mary Peter-Odili of the Supreme Court of Nigeria was invaded by law enforcement officials purportedly on an assignment to execute a search warrant issued by a magistrate.
“Also troubling is the fact that the said warrant was revoked by the issuing magistrate after it was discovered that it had been obtained by the applicant based on false information.”
“As a committee working with the judiciary to improve judicial reform and the justice system.”
Ada Peter
