By Donu Kogbara

SUPREME Court Justice Mrs. Mary Odili, who happens to be the wife of Dr. Peter Odili, the former Governor of Rivers State, was subjected to a traumatic and unfair indignity last Friday when her Abuja residence was invaded by security personnel. 

The Supreme Court, in a statement by its Director of Press and Information, Dr. Festus Akande, described the attack as a despicable, uncivilised and shameful show of primitive “gestapo” force on an innocent judicial officer.

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Dr Akande accused them of carrying on as if they had gone there “to kill and maim their target under the guise of undertaking a search whose warrant was questionable and baseless…”

This is not the first time that this kind of thing has happened since Buhari became President in 2015. Akande recalled the October 2016 midnight invasion of the homes of various justices “with no satisfactory explanations as to the true motive behind such brazen assault…”

The current Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has also expressed outrage about the above incident…from which Buhari’s Attorney General has distanced himself.

Let’s hope that this is the last occasion on which judges will be exposed to rough treatment from those who claim to be protecting Nigeria from wrongdoers but have toxic political agendas, no sense of perspective and skewed priorities.

We are being overrun by bandits, terrorists, armed robbers and rogue herdsmen. This week, four University of Abuja employees were abducted by an armed gang. Most months, we hear about school children being carted off by gun-toting kidnappers. The other day, the Abuja-Kaduna train was attacked.

Instead of security operatives focussing their energies on catching real criminal elements, they harass Mrs. Odili. She is a legal luminary par excellence. Her formidable intellectual credentials aside, she is a very nice and motherly woman who has won many hearts in the state she adopted on her wedding day.

Justice Mary is actually from Imo State, but treats Rivers people as if we are her own people. This is why several incensed Riverians have asked me to speak on their behalf and say, loud and clear on this page, that the authorities should leave our Madame alone o!