NBA, police go after attackers of Gombe court judge

From Paul Osuyi, Asaba

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) said it has put machinery in motion to bring the perpetrators of the attack on a court judge in Gombe State.

In a statement by the national publicity secretary of NBA, Akorede Habeeb Lawal, confirmed the attack, saying that the judge of the Upper Area Court in Balanga Local Government Area of the state was visiting a locus in quo when the attack occured.

Lawal stated that the NBA condemned the attack in unequivocal terms and vowed to ensure that the perpetrators of the “criminal contempt of court are apprehended and made to face the full weight of the law.”

According to him, the NBA President, Mr. Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau (SAN), has directed the chairmen of NBA Gombe Branch and the NBA Security Agencies Relations Committee (SARC) to collaborate with the Gombe State Police Command to get to the root of the incident as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the statement which was made available to our correspondent in Asaba on Friday, indicated that the NBA visited the Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Hon. Justice Oyewole Adeyeye at a London hospital where the Ekiti CJ has recovered to full health, following injuries sustained from the collapse of part of the Ekiti State High Court complex housing the chambers of his lordship earlier in July this year.

The statement quoted Maikyau as disclosing that his lordship was in high spirits, and was set to return to the country to resume work.

It added that the Ekiti CJ acknowledged the support of Ekiti State Government, Afe Babalola (SAN), the judiciary and the NBA for standing by him in the trying period.

It recalled that the NBA had bemoaned the deplorable state of court infrastructures across the country, following the collapse of the chambers of the Chief Judge, Ekiti State, leading to his lordship’s hospitalisation and subsequent medical consultation in the United Kingdom.