By CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI – CHIEF Judge of Imo State, Justice Benjamin Ahanonu Njemanze, yesterday, summoned an emergency meeting of all the serving judges in the state following the abduction of a serving High Court judge, Justice Theophilus Ugwu and the gruesome murder of his driver and police orderly.

One of the judges who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity, not only confirmed the development but also affirmed that they were briefed about what befell their colleague.

He, however, bluntly resisted being drawn into saying whether the courts would continue to sit or not, in the face of what he described as “the huge security challenge facing serving High Court Judges in the state”.

His words: “Judges met last weekend at the instance of the Chief Judge. We were told about what happened to our colleague. Honestly, I am afraid of my personal safety but what can I do? A lot of us went Sunday afternoon to condole with the family of our kidnapped colleague.” Another judge who also refused to be mentioned, affirmed that he was “scared stiff since the brazen kidnap of my colleague and murder of his driver and police orderly.”

He added: “Where do we go from here? If a driver and police orderly could be killed in cold blood, what is the use going out with them? These are strange times and only God can save us.”

Meanwhile, Imo State Police Command has described the kidnap of the judge and murder of his driver and orderly as “damnable and heinous.”

The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Maishanu, who made the feelings of his Command known in an exclusive telephone interview with Vanguard, Sunday evening, also said that his men were already on the trail of the fleeing kidnappers.

Maishanu said: “The kidnap of the Judge is damnable and most unacceptable to the Command. Similarly, the gruesome murder of the Judge’s driver and orderly is heinous, whichever way you may look at it.”

Fleeing hoodlums
Answering another question, the Imo police boss reaffirmed that his “men are already after the fleeing hoodlums and it may not be long before the long arms of the law catches up with them”.

While saying that he was not aware if the kidnappers had made any contact with members of their victim’s family, the CP, however, said that the remains of the Judge’s driver and orderly have been deposited in a hospital morgue.

The commissioner noted: “We have moved the remains of the police orderly and driver to the mortuary. We have also informed the families of the deceased citizens. We are assuring the people that the police will definitely apprehend the hoodlums.”

When contacted, yesterday, on what the Police High Command in Abuja was doing on the abduction of the judge, the command said that it will react today.