By: Odie Ramon, Yenagoa.
Fresh facts have emerged on how unidentified Gunmen abducted a State High Court Judge, Justice E.G. Umokoro at Ekeki area of Yenagoa in the Bayelsa State capital.
He was kidnapped in front of a popular eatery known as Kilimanjaro at about 7pm after a struggle.
The Judge, according to many legal practitioners in the state, was in the company of two of his daughters to buy a loaf of bread from the eatery before the gunmen struck.
And he was referred to a confident judge who usually drives himself around town without designated security during off-duty. He was also a one-time State Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association.
Justice Umokoro is also described as an activist judge who had also had a brush with the men of the Bayelsa Police Command over some judicial decisions involving the release of some notorious kidnappers on alleged technical grounds.
A Judicial decision, which led to altercations between the outgoing leadership of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Yenagoa Branch, Barrister Somina Johnbull, and the present State Police Commissioner, Mr. Francis Idu.
Eyewitnesses at the eatery and across at Ekeki Park confirmed that the abducted judge was trailed to the eatery by armed men, dressed in full police combatant regalia with mask covering their faces.
Two of the men were seen coming down from the Nissan Hilux vehicle and tapping on the car glass of the car which was rolled down by the judge who was on call with his mobile phone.
One eyewitness said he overheard the men telling the Judge that “our Oga wants to see you”, but the Judge answered them that “Are you aware I am a judge? And tell your Oga to come and see me here”
The two armed men were seen walking away from his vehicle and made some calls to an unknown person. They were later seen three knocking loudly on the judge’s car and forcefully opening the door and dragging him down
The judge, who seemed offended, was seen struggling with the gunmen while passersby watched in awe.
He was eventually forced into the white Nissan Hilux vehicle after much struggle. The incident lasted over 50 minutes.
A military personnel was sighted on a closed-circuit camera of the eatery contemplating intervening in the altercation between the Judge and the gunmen, “but thought better of it.”
But a loud gunshot to the ground made the decision for him, and he scampered back into the eatery to avoid getting killed.
“Some thought they were police or men of the DSS. But they were not carrying that funny (uzzi) rifle like the DSS, nor was their uniform written police. But they wore black on black with bulletproof jackets like the men of the police. But after the real police arrived, many people now knew those other ones were kidnappers.”
Some staff of the eatery, however, told newsmen that, in the midst of the struggle, the kidnapped Judge’s mobile phone and a pouch containing his identity cards, ATM cards, and National ID cards fell, and two mobile phones from some of the kidnappers fell.
Police source at the Ekeki Divisional Headquarters, also corroborated the claims, insisting that a passerby picked up the Judge’s phone and handed it to the police.
Contacted on the development, the Spokesman of the Bayelsa State Police Command, Mohammed Musa Confirmed the development and said the command have stated discreet investigation into the development.