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minic Ezerioha, my Personal Assistant and my
Abuja office-based junior Lawyer, respectively,
were accosted by my captors at a location in
Benin City, dictated by my captors to meet with
them for an exchange of the ransom money
already raised to free me from the horrendous
gulag. However, little did they know that these
people constituting the roguish and satanic
tribe of kidnappers had different sinister plans.
For, as soon as my children (son and junior
Lawyer) arrived with the money with the hope
of an exchange, both Barrister Ozekhome, and
Barrister Ezerioha, were themselves promptly
kidnapped and brought to join me in my
horrific den. It was the anguish and trauma
of a lifetime. Hell couldn’t have been hotter!
My Eventual Release and Return From
the Kidnappers Den
On 12th September, 2013, after a gruelling and
deeply traumatic three weeks of captivity in
solitary and squalid conditions, I was, along
with my Son and Personal Assistant, eventually
released after the kidnappers extorted huge
sums of money from my family as ransom. The
news of my release activated wild jubilation
and thanksgiving across Nigeria, so much that
the Media went into a state of frenzy, laying
siege at every possible place they perceived
I would show up in. Thus, the airports at
Benin, Lagos and Abuja were manned in
fervent anticipation by all the popular (and
not so popular) media, competing with each
other for a scoop on my historic experience
for dissemination to an anxious public.
But, it was to Lagos I flew, on the first avail
able flight from Benin City. In my house at
Igando, Lagos, the atmosphere was electrifying,
as wellwishers, friends, neighbours, staff and
sundry guests converged to celebrate God, life
and my safe return.
My World Press Conference
The media had already laid siege at my house.
In the hot afternoon of that fateful day that
the Lord had made (12th September, 2013), I
addressed the media…. I specifically thanked
the then Inspector General of Police, Alhaji
M.D. Abubakar, for his wonderful intervention.
He called my wife intermittently, to assure
her everything was being done to secure my
earliest release. He is a great Nigerian. I then made the following Seven-Point demand
on the Federal Government of Nigeria, during
my media chat: 1. That as a matter of extreme urgency, I
wanted the Federal Government to immediately
grant amnesty to all kidnappers and institute
an amnesty programme for them. They had
told me that if they were given assurance
that they will not be killed, they would be
ready to agree to an amnesty deal, come out
of the jungle, drop their hoods and masks,
and embrace peace and dialogue.
2. That the Federal Government should
declare a national state of emergency on youth
unemployment and infrastructural decay.
3. That the Federal Government should not
neglect the families of the four Policemen who
were killed while trying to rescue me from my
abductors: “It was this morning that I was briefed
that those gallant officers died while trying to
rescue us from our abductors. Let me hereby
call upon the Federal Government to set up
a special Foundation to cater for the welfare
of the wives and children of these officers,
so that the children can attend school up to
University level”.
4. I then called on the National Assembly
to amend the Constitution, to allow for State
Police in the ongoing amendment of the 1999
Constitution. This would ensure effective com
munity policing. I argued that it is a common
practice in the USA, where you have the FBI,
CIA, State Police, County Council Police, Cities
and even University Police.
5. I also called for the convocation of a
“In terms of their organisation and modus
operandi, I can say clearly that the kidnappers
constitute a very well organised segment of our
society. There were apparently not less than
25 fully armed kidnappers guarding our camp
at any given point in time, with large cache of
automatic weapons”
national conference to address some of
the problems bedevilling the country:
“As Nigerians, we need to sit down and
negotiate our existence is called, whether
National Dialogue, National Summit, as
a country. I do not care by whatever
name the conference National Confer
ence, Conference of Ethic Nationalities,
or Sovereign National Conference. The
important thing is that Nigerians must sit
down to discuss the National question
and seek the way forward”, I argued
that the loud silence about our problems
will ultimately terminate
Nigeria if we did sit down to dialogue.
6. The need to practice true federalism:
“We need to retool and reengineer Nigeria
and bring about true fiscal federalism
and resource democracy”, I urged.
7. I then called on the Federal Govern
ment of Nigeria to tackle the hydra-headed
problem of corruption in the country,
corruption which I argued, had become
the 37th State of Nigeria. I said, “We
must kill corruption, or else corruption
will kill us all”.
Chief Mike Ozekhome, CON, SAN,
Human Rights and Constitutional
Lawyer
Kidnapping, Killing of Law
yers: Way out of an Existential
Logjam
Chief Anthony Aikhunegbe Malik, SAN
Introduction
It will not be a frivolity nor an act of
pessimism, neither will it be one of a
hyperbolic sport on an existential crisis,
to state that, as one writes, scores of
Nigerians are being kidnapped somewhere
in different locations across the country.
The grimmer perspective to the above is
that, not every victim of the horrendous
but seemly helplessly pervasive act is
likely to come out of it alive. Many a
victim, may be killed!Uncannily, for reasons yet to be deci
phered, in the rising cases of kidnap in
Nigeria, members of the legal profession,
or their significant others, appear to be
the attractive option. The more disturbing
side to it is that, members of the esteemed
profession on the Bench, that is, Judges and
Magistrates, are not spared, adding thereby
to the current disturbing trend of wanton
violation of the sanctity of the profession and
desecration of the sacredness of the temple
of justice.
Two Kidnappings of Okey Wali, SAN
A peep into the recent past will, sadly, present
one with gory incidents of kidnap and killing
of Lawyers and Judges across the country.
The latest in the tally of abductions of our
colleagues, is that of a former President of the
Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Okey Wali,
SAN, who was abducted about two weeks
ago, and as at my writing of this article, is
still being held by his captors. Incidentally, it
is the second time such an unfortunate fate
has befallen the former NBA No.1. In October,
2014, he was abducted in Rumualogu Town,
Akpor, Rivers State by unknown gunmen, in
circumstances not dissimilar from the nascent
one. He only regained his freedom a week
or so after.
The Legal Profession and Nigeria’s Crime
Diary
Quite apart from the above, the country’s
crime diary mournfully testifies to many gory
incidents of kidnap and killings of Lawyers,
Judges and Magistrates across the nation. In
March 2021, kidnappers abducted and killed
Francis Onwuachi, Esq., Chairman of the
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Onitsha Branch.
Prior to this time, on Sunday, 1st September,
2022, a former Chairman of the same Branch,
B. C. Igwe, Esq. and his wife, Abigail Igwe(also a Lawyer), were brutally murdered by
persons suspected to be assassins. The sad
event occurred in Awada Layout, Onitsha,
Anambra State. Again, sometime in April, 2015,
the Chairman of NBA, Ughelli Branch, Austin
Icheghe, Esq., was gruesomely murdered
in his residence, right in the presence of his
family and without any consequences.In March 2011, High Court Judges in Imo
State were forced to embark on a strike to
protest the abduction of one their colleagues,
the Honourable Justice Theophilus Nzekwe.
Justice Nzekwe was not the first victim. A
year earlier, the President of the Imo State’s
Customary Court of Appeal, Mr Ambrose
Egu and a Senior Magistrate, Mrs Pauline
Njemanze, were abducted at different times
near the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo
Airport, Owerri. On October 30, 2019, it was
the turn of the Hon. Justice Chioma Nwosu
Iheme, then Presiding Justice of the Court
of Appeal, Benin Division, to be abducted.
It happened in Benin City, Edo State, where
unknown gunmen unleashed a reign of terror
on His Lordship and her aides. In the process,
her security detail, a Police Inspector, was
murdered. The now retired jurist spent 14
agonising days in the kidnappers’ den, before
she regained her priceless freedom. Before
Justice Nwosu-Ikpeme’s abduction came, that
of High Chief Mike Ozekhome, a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, Professor of Law of
several local and internationally-accredited
Universities, an avid commentator on national
issues and holder of countless chieftaincy titles
of many communities in Nigeria. He was
randomly kidnapped at the Benin-Auchi
motorway on 23rd August, 2013 and held
for ransom, for about 20 harrowing days
before his eventual release. Mrs Adedoyin
Rhodes-Vivour, SAN, wife of retired Justice
of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Bode
RhodesVivour, and their daughter, were also
kidnapped along Lagos-Benin Road, Edo
State on May 10, 2013. They were taken to
Sapele, Delta State, where they were released
18 days later.
Sometime in September, 2021, a former
Chief Judge of Abia State, the Hon. Justice
Nnenna Oti, was abducted in Orlu, Imo State.
Seven months earlier, Presiding Justice of the
Court of Appeal, Owerri, the Hon. Justice
Rita Pemu, took her turn to navigate the
perils of abduction and possible assassination.
So too, is the Honourable Justice Hasanna
Garuba, now a serving Judge of the Edo
State High Court, who as a Senior Magistrate
in the Edo State Judiciary, was kidnapped
in 2016 and 2020 respectively. The list is by
no means exhaustive
A Way Out?
In suggesting a way out of the crises of abduc
tion and killing of Lawyers, it will amount
to playing the ostrich to even remotely think
of any tailor-made panacea against the vices
for Lawyers alone, outside of the required
all-inclusive remedy for the entire society of
Nigeria, chief of which is the direlyneeded,
but presently non-existent effective political
leadership, to give the country a clear direc
tion. At the moment, Nigeria is a completely
dislocated nation. Issues such as pervading
injustice, youth unemployment, poverty,
spiralling inflation, official corruption, dearth
of or decaying social amenities, erosion of (our)
foundational moral values and dysfunctional
educational curricula across all levels have
sadly become our lot. It is thus, beyond any
argument, that it is the sum total of the above
that has birthed the current hydraheaded
monster of insecurity confronting us as a
nation and as a people. This is the real threat
to Nigeria’s corporate existence. By and large, the legal profession is only
but a fabric of the society. It is inconceivable
that it can or will exist in isolation, not even
by some luxury of ingenuity, nor by any
human or technological security measures.
In essence, being a piece or part of the main,
what affects the larger fabric of the society
will, of necessity, spiral onto and impact on
the legal profession.
Chief Anthony Aikhunnegbe Malik, SAN
Kidnapping of Chief Okey Wali,
SAN: Lawyers’ Lives Matter
Kunle Edun
Background
Kidnapping in Nigeria is not new, and had
never really been breaking news until early
2006 when kidnapping for ransom became a
multi-million Naira business enterprise which
saw the kidnapping of prominent Nigerians
and business moguls.
Chief Anthony Aikhunegbe Malik, SAN .
Story by Prof. Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN, CON, OFR, FCIAR, pHD .
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