By Donu Kogbara

SECURITY agents descended on the home of Honourable Justice Mary Odili’s home on Friday, October 29. She is the second highest-ranking judge on the Supreme Court.

Many distinguished individuals and organisations have publicly questioned this outrageous invasion of privacy. But still there are no adequate answers from the executive arm of government. 

As Olumide Akpata, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has pointed out, this is not the first time that senior judges have been traumatised and disrespected for no apparent reason.  

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He says that there was also a “Gestapo-like” invasion of the residences of some Supreme Court and other superior court Justices in 2016. And, “over four years later, the rationale for that raid has never been fully explained or indeed justified.”

Instead, what has followed has been “an orgy of denials” by those whose offices are suspected of having a hand in this matter: The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Inspector General of Police (who also said that a detailed investigation into the raid would be conducted and that the perpetrators would be punished).   

Akpata has pointed out that this “sting operation by faceless security personnel grossly undermines the democracy we profess to practise and…is undoubtedly an attempt to intimidate the Judiciary and dissuade [them] from dispensing justice without fear or favour.”

The NBA is sceptical about the above denials and has vowed to leave no stone unturned in its bid to unmask and bring to justice those behind the raid on the Odili residence, no matter how highly placed.

I commend Akpata for his no-nonsense stance and share his eagerness to receive satisfactory responses to the following questions: If all the relevant government agencies deny authorising the raid, then who authorised the operation? Who took the decision to approach the Magistrate for the search warrant?

What if the team had succeeded and any form of harm had befallen Justice Odili? Who would have taken responsibility? Today it is the residence of Odili. Who will be the subject of such raids tomorrow? What of the potential impact of this raid on the morale and psyche of other judicial officers? Are they truly expected to dispense justice without fear or favour in this menacing climate? Can they go to bed without worrying about being attacked by rogue security operatives?

The Chairman of the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law, Dr. Monday Ubani, has been appointed to serve as the NBA’s Special Investigator. I await the outcome of this investigation with bated breath.

CNN versus FGN

THIS time last year, Cable News Network, CNN, the globally respected American TV channel, screened a bombshell report, based on a meticulous investigation conducted by its journalists.

Please find below some comments I made at the time on this page: The horrifying mini-documentary, which has gone viral online, credibly contradicted the Federal Government of Nigeria’s  insistence that no #EndSARS protester was murdered by trigger-happy soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on October 20.

CNN’s account of what really happened on that fateful night matches the harrowing tale that has been told, both locally and internationally, by Switch, a young DJ who was at the scene of the crime and has been demonised as a dangerous liar by the authorities.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has expressed the views that CNN should be sanctioned for peddling highly irresponsible “fake news”…

…Lai Mohammed says that there was no massacre at Lekki and that he is satisfied by the roles played by army and police officers. 

I used to have a handful of pals who worked for CNN. But my pals have all retired or moved on to other TV stations. And I don’t know a single individual who is on CNN’s payroll at the moment. But I am an ex-BBC journalist myself, which means that I am very familiar with the values that underpin the operations of the main European and American multinational media outlets.

And I think that I can confidently declare that CNN is serious about integrity, that CNN has no personal axe to grind against President Buhari or his subordinates, that CNN is only interested in providing its viewers with accurate information and that the CNN film footage depicting blood-soaked bodies and live bullets was not doctored. 

This week, a government-appointed panel – the Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution at the Lagos Court of Arbitration – accused Nigerian Army officers of having “shot, injured and killed unarmed helpless and defenceless protesters, without provocation or justification, while they were waving the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem and the manner of assault and killing could in context be described as a massacre.”

The panel also found “the conduct of the Nigerian Army was exacerbated by its refusal to allow ambulances render medical assistance to victims who required such assistance. The Army was also found not to have adhered to its own Rules of Engagement.”

The panel’s report repeatedly referred to the CNN reportage, which used time stamps, video data, and geolocation last year to analyse hours of video filmed by protesters. I commend Nima Elbagir, the CNN journalist whose tireless work enabled the panel and general public to access critical information.

I rest my case about CNN’s integrity. And I applaud the Nigerian government for not arresting panel members who came up with such an embarrassing verdict!!!