Lawyers in Imo State on Tuesday protested in Owerri, the state capital, over the killing of the magistrate in charge of Ejemekwuru customary court situated in the Oguta Local Government Area of the state, Nnaemeka Ugboma.
Marching from the Bar centre on Owerri – Orlu Road in Owerri, the legal practitioners dressed in black attires, with a banner and placards with various inscriptions conveying their message, the lawyers called for an end to killings in the state.
The chairman of the Owerri Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ugochukwu Allinor, in company of the four other chairmen of the NBA in the state, condemned Ugboma’s killing.
Allinor, said that the protest was to make the security agents in the state to leave up to their responsibilities.
He called on the government to provide adequate security arrangements with court premises and for all courts in the state to be fenced.
Allinor, called on the police to swiftly apprehend the killers of the judge as well as those who beheaded the Sole Administrator of the Ideato North Local Government Area of the state, Chris Ohizu.
Another lawyer, Chuks Agbugba said that the the murder of the jurist was a treat to justice dispensation in the state.
He called on the police personnel to leave ” Yahoo boys” and concentration on the core security issue of protesting lives and property.
Another lawyer, Tony Ephraim, who spoke to journalists at the entrance of the state police command headquarters decried what he called the constant killing of lawyers in the state.
Ephraim said ” we are here to protest the constant killing of lawyers in Imo State and attack on court facilities. The other time a former chairman of the bar was killed in his office. A lawyer was also killed in Orlu and now we are talking about the killing of magistrate in his court.”
Adding his voice, Emeka Ihejirika, said that himself and the other lawyers would not leave the venue until the state commissioner of police addressed them.
