By Jamiu Ganiyu
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Osogbo branch has condemned in strong words the physical attacks launched on one of its members, which goes by name, Barrister Eze Ngwoke, by an official of the Nigeria Prisons Service attached to Ilesha Prisons at the premises of the Osogbo Judicial Division of the Osun State High Court, on Tuesday 17th July, 2019, in Osogbo, the State capital.
The body in a press statement signed by its branch Chairman and secretary respectively, Barristers Abdulrahman Okunade and S. O. Abiona, a copy which was made available to osun.life today, described the action of the Prison official as an uncivilised behaviour and a true reflection of what prisoners were going through in the hands of prison officials in the country.
The association said it has written to her national Secretariat for redress and confident that necessary measures would be taken against the Prison official involved.
The statement reads, “the Osogbo Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association received with surprise, a report of physical attacks on a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Mr Kasiamobi Eze Ngwoke by an official of the Nigeria Prisons Service attached to Ilesa Prisons in Osun State, Mr Fakorede A. S. The lawyer involved, Mr Ngwoke, is a member of the NBA, Osogbo Branch”
“The ugly event took place on Tuesday the 16th day of July 2019 right on the premises of the Osogbo Judicial Division of the Osun State High Court while the lawyer was going about his lawful calling as an advocate”
“The investigation by the Osogbo Bar revealed that Mr Ngwoke was at the Osun State Magistrate’s Court (housed within the same compound as the High Court) to represent a client of his (one Mr Michael Onah Orohu). As soon as the said client was ordered to be remanded in prison custody pending the perfection of bail granted him by the court, the aforementioned prison official was seen dragging the said client into the waiting prison van, and an attempt by the man to resist the wanton trespass to his person earned him multiple slaps across his face by the said prison official”
“Irked by the said unprovoked assault on his client, Mr Ngwoke moved closer and persuaded the prison official to desist from his unlawful acts, more so that the client was still deemed to be innocent of the very charges that brought him to court. But, apparently irritated by the lawyer’s effrontery to question his actions, the prison official, Mr. Fakorede and his colleagues, abandoned the initial victim and descended on Mr. Ngwoke right on the court premises and in the full glare of the public, raining punches and slaps on the lawyer”
“As a body, the Osogbo Bar is in touch with the National Secretariat of the NBA on this act of provocation. We are a body of law-abiding professionals whose focal point is the promotion of the rule of law, whether we are directly involved or not. It is our understanding that, in a civilized society, the dialogue is the code of dispute resolution, as brute force is believed to reside in the obsolete State of Nature. And, a prison official is reasonably expected to be a partner in this progress of attaining and maintaining civilization”
“Where a custodian of our Prisons is exhibiting brutality not only in public but also on a supposed partner in the task of preserving the Social Contract, it can easily be imagined what fate befalls the prison inmates under his watch behind the prison walls on a daily basis. And to that extent, we may need not go further to wonder ‘why’ if many prison inmates turn out more hardened than reformed”
“Not only because a colleague of ours is involved, but particularly in consonance with our commitment to the eternal promotion of the Rule of Law as against Rule of Might, the NBA Osogbo Branch is determined to have this particular reprehensible occurrence adequately redressed”
“We appreciate the outpour of concerns from well-meaning persons and institutions from far and near on the occurrence. We assure all of our continued determination to stamp out all vestiges of the pro-democracy era from our society with all means lawful”, the statement concluded.