The Anambra State Police Command has declared Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu wanted over the murder of two officers yesterday, December 2.The Commissioner of Police, John Abang, who made the declaration today, December 3 in Awka, the Anambra State capital, linked the wanted lawyer, including some members of the proscribed IPOB to the murder of the officers in Oraifite, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of the state on Monday.
“I’ll like Nigerians to know that Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, a member of the proscribed IPOB, has been declared wanted.
“I’ll seek the cooperation of law-abiding Nigerians, East, West, North, and South that wherever they find this individual, they should report to the nearest police station for possible arrest and prosecution based on the rules and laws of Nigeria.”
The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Haruna Mohammed, had in a statement said two police officers were killed by the suspected IPOB members while others were inflicted with machete cuts in the incident.
IPOB had accused the police of setting fire on the home of Ejiofor in Oraifite, Anambra State.
In a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group wondered why the Police would go further to raze the lawyer’s home even after killing two unarmed and innocent civilians.
It maintained that the carelessness of the police in handling the petrol they used to drench Ejiofor’s home and nearby businesses before setting them on fire led to the fire that gutted a police van.
The statement read in part, “The unprovoked Nigeria police and army invasion of the home of our lawyer, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, barely four days after the painful burial of his elder brother is proof that those running Nigeria have descended into the abyss of iniquity from which they may never recover.
“Not even during the darkest days of Abacha’s dictatorship did anyone witness such brazen intimidation of a legal counsel or the attempted assassination of a defence counsel in a high profile case.
“It is the golden rule of every legal system under the sun that defence counsel are not harassed, intimidated or killed but it seems nothing is sacrosanct in the present circumstance.
“We don’t expect the roundly docile and cowardly Nigeria Bar Association or their impotent and subdued National Judicial Council to rise up in condemnation of this contemptuous behaviour by Aso Rock in this latest attempt to kill Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
“This level of dictatorial impunity against the rule of law, judicial process and natural justice must not be condoned by any right-thinking person.
Punch
