The Supreme Court has described the alleged invasion of Justice Mary Odili’s residence by suspected security operatives as impunity taken too far.
The apex court, in a statement, by its Director of Press and Information, Dr Akande Festus, said that the attack was uncivilised and a shameful show of primitive force on an innocent judicial officer.
The court said it was alarmed by the news of the unwarranted and despicable raid on the official residence of one of its senior justices in the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Mary Peter Odili, on Friday 29” October, 2021, in a Gestapo manner.
The apex court said the attack unfortunately depicted a gory picture of war by some armed persons suspected to be security operatives representing different agencies of government who seemed to have come to kill and maim their target under the guise of undertaking a search whose warrant was questionable and baseless.
The court said it was deeply saddened and taken aback by this uncivilised and shameful show of force on an innocent judicial officer that had spent several years of her productive life serving the country she called her own.
It stated that this incident brought back, rather painfully, the ugly memory of the October 2016 midnight invasion of the homes of its respected justices with no satisfactory explanations as to the true motive behind such brazen assault on their collective sensibility.
The court made it abundantly clear that the Nigerian Judiciary is the third arm of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and should be respected and treated as such.
It lamented that it had a full dosage of this fusillade of unwarranted and unprovoked attacks on its judicial officers, and even its facilities across the country, and “we say, enough is enough.”
The apex court said the judiciary should never be construed by any individual or institution of government as the arm of government that must always be chastised and ridiculed into silence because of its conservative disposition.
The Supreme Court said though there had emerged discordant tunes from the various security agencies that allegedly participated in the dastardly act, “we are not lying low on this dehumanizing treatment meted out to one of our own.”
The court said it had begun a full-scale independent investigation to unravel the true masquerades behind the mystery as well as the real motives behind the whole incident.
