The immediate Past 1st Assistant General Secretary of the NBA, Okey Leo Ohagba, has registered his displeasure over the invasion of the court and violation of her sanctity by armed operatives of the DSS in the attempt to re-arrest MR. Sowore.
Okey made this remark following the drama displayed by some armed operatives of the DSS inside the courtroom of Hon. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. According to him, he feels so sadden ashamed as a lawyer, watching the courtroom desecration video in a bid to rearrest a suspect just granted bail by the court.
In his words “I feel so saddened and ashamed as a lawyer because some members of the legal profession will still find reasons out of sheer political sentiments to defend this desecration of the temple of justice.
How did this madness get to this terrible level? he asked.
Speaking further he said “as lawyers, notwithstanding how bad we’ve been muscled and threatened into silence by security agencies, I urge us never to shy away from that super duty of defending and promoting the rule of law at all times.
“The man in us will die completely, the moment we keep that unholy mum in the face of crass injustice and overt suppression of the rule of law, no matter who’s involved. It is Sowore today, who will it be tomorrow?.
“I’ve not met Sowore before, I don’t even need to know him before I can condemn this evil.
The sanctity of the courts must be preserved and this onslaught on the legal profession judiciary must stop.
“The dignity and respect for the NBA and the legal profession in Nigeria will soon be completely eroded if we don’t act fast now, he said.
He insists that “crime must be fought within the ambits of the law and nothing short of it”.
” I’m calling on the leadership of NBA, all lawyers and concerned Nigerians alike to rise and save our hard-earned democracy, lest we descend into anarchy.
He also called on the federal government to call these agencies to order. This impunity must stop.
He restates that “without the courts and maximum respect for rule of law, we can’t have a Nation,”