A video making the rounds on social media, particularly X (formerly Twitter) has shown how a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chukwuma Ekomaru, SAN led security agents and thugs to cart away ballot papers and boxes from some polling units during the Saturday gubernatorial election in Imo state.
The video shared on X by Law Teacher and ex-Chair of National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu caught the Senior of Advocate of Nigeria, security agents and the thugs with him disrupting and interfering with the election in a part if the state.
Confirming the incident, a ward collation office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Stanley Uchi Onyea alleged that Ekomaru SAN along with some police and army officers manhandled and beat him up for resisting their attempt to grab and take away the ballot boxes and papers.
Describing the unending pontification on professional ethics by members of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) as hypocritical as its members are frequently involved in gross misdemeanours and malfeasance, Odinkalu his tweet, urged the Body to investigate the allegations,
The tweet reads: “Tomorrow, the Body of Senior Advocates of #Nigeria, #BOSAN, will be issuing lectures to us all on ethics. I hope they will find these allegations of #ElectionViolence against Chukwuma Ekomaru, SAN, husband of @Hope_Uzodimma1’s deputy in #ImoBleeds2023, deserving of attention.”
Odinkalu, ever strident in his condemnation of lawlessness and abuse of power by senior lawyers, politicians and other top members of the society has also not spared the judiciary in his scathing rebukes.
“Lots of lawyers & judges in post-colonial, common law contexts speak breezily of #AdministrationOfJustice when in fact they mean administration of the law. Very often, many of them are involved in using the law to profit their pockets & frustrate justice. They “administer justice” with no interest in delivering it. That is administration of injustice. In #Nigeria, for instance, many judges deliver judgment that injure justice, bringing it into disrepute. The politicians & their thugs have captured the courts. When they want to laugh at you, they tell you to #GoToCourt. The result is that most citizens & court users regard lawyers & judges as no more than ostentatiously dressed up #SexWorkers. Many with disputes have turned to vigilantism, self-help, and jungle justice, enhancing insecurity and violence around the country. For many lawyers & judges, still, the penny has not yet dropped….”
Meanwhile, suspected political thugs, on Saturday, harassed journalists covering the governorship election in Omuma Community in Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State. Omuma is the hometown of the state governor, Hope Uzodinma, who is also the candidate of the APC in the election.
A PREMIUM TIMES reporter narrowly escaped attack when he visited Polling Unit (PU) 028 Ama Ozaraigwe to monitor the exercise at about 12:03 p.m.
The polling unit is a few miles away from Mr Uzodinma’s polling unit. The suspected thugs, who appeared apprehensive by the reporter’s presence at the polling unit, ordered him to leave the premises.
“You’re making people uncomfortable here. Just go. You have seen enough,” one of thugs, a young man, told the reporter.
“Your face is strange. We know ourselves here.”
There was no security operative at the polling unit at the time of the incident.
When the reporter reminded him he was accredited for the election, another thug retorted: “Anyone can come here with a tag and say he’s accredited.”
“No! We are not even doubting you, but you have seen enough,” the first suspected thug added, while pushing the reporter away.
While the reporter hesitated, one of the thugs flared up and threatened to deal with him if he failed to leave immediately.
“You can check other polling units,” many of them said almost in unison.
At the entry point, the reporter attempted to take photograph of an INEC poster showing details of the polling unit, but the thugs prevented him and attempted to lynch him.
“No. No! Are you going to report this?” One of them enquired.
“Move, move!” another shouted.
Many other suspected thugs from the polling unit came out, apparently angry at the reporter.
“Quickly go now. Just go now!,” a woman whispered to this reporter in Igbo language.
Minor harassment
Some minutes after, at polling unit 002, Court Hall Etiti within the community, the reporter was again asked to leave the unit’s premises by a suspected thug.
The suspected thug told the reporter that if he must be allowed into the premises, he must see a man believed to be their leader.
When the reporter accepted, the thug led him to a man – in his forties – who enquired from this reporter what he came to do at the unit.
Apart from the unidentified man, there were other people seated in the area, some miles away from the unit.
After explanations, the man granted the reporter access, but signalled to the thug to keep close watch on the reporter.
