Mary Odili: The judge and mother of two judges

By Lillian Okenwa

Her last days at the Supreme Court were nearly marred by the attempted invasion of her Abuja residence on the night of Friday, October 29, 2021, by security operatives comprising soldiers, officers of the State Security Services (SSS), policemen, and others.

It was a move the Supreme Court management, in a statement by its Director, Press, and Information, Festus Akande, described as a mission to kill or maim her.

Born 12 May 1952 in Amudi Obizi, Ezinihitte-Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State to Eze Bernard Nzenwa, a distinguished pre-independence legal practitioner, and Ugoeze Bernadette Nzenwa, Hon Justice Mary Ukaego Odili commenced her career in the judiciary as a Magistrate Grade III in November 1978. She served as Chief Magistrate Grade I, between 1980 and 1988 and became a High Court Judge in 1992.

This former First Lady of River State and Inaugural Chairperson of the International Federal of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Rivers State rose to the Court of Appeal in 2004 and in 2011 became the third woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. 

Justice Odili’s two daughters were sworn in last year as High Court judges, thereby following their mother’s footsteps. On the 23rd of December 2021, her daughter Njideka Iheme, was sworn in as a judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Justice Iheme was sworn in by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, alongside 20 others.

She is married to Uzoma Nwosu Iheme, the son of Court of Appeal’s Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme. A month later — on 24th December 2021, her sister Chinelo Chidubem Odili was sworn in as a Judge of the Rivers State Judiciary by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

Among Mary Peter Odili’s last judicial duties was the judgment which saved a convicted woman from the hangman’s noose. Investigators arrested Mrs. Enobong Isonguyo and their family pastor, Udoka Ukachukwu for the alleged murder of her husband. They were eventually convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Her later husband, a former senior NNPC staff was said to have been killed and burnt inside his Toyota Corolla car. An appellate court upheld the trial court’s decision, confirming the death penalty for the duo.

However Justice Mary Odili in a landmark judgement delivered days ago at the Supreme Court held that the ruling from the lower court was based on speculation and imagination, which are not part of the criminal code. She described the death sentence as a miscarriage of justice and ordered Isonguyo to be released unconditionally.