Fourteen persons have been arrested in connection with the siege on Justice Mary Odili’s apartment in Abuja, the police said on Thursday.
Some of the suspects include a fake Chief Superintendent of Police, Lawrence Ajodo; a contributing editor with one of the national dailies, Stanley Nkwazema, and an Islamic scholar.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, paraded the suspects in Abuja and explained that their arrest followed a swift investigation by the police.
At least ten more persons linked with the incident including two military personnel are at large, the police spokesman added.
The arrest is the latest in a series of events since some armed men laid siege on Justice Odili’s apartment in Maitama.
The incident drew criticisms from many quarters including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, among others.
Wike had given the Federal Government a 48-hour ultimatum to get the perpetrators and claimed that the incident was an assassination attempt.
“We think that there is an attempt to assassinate Justice Mary Odili, the husband and members of the family, there are no two ways about it. If they had succeeded, all the Federal Government would have told us (is that) we will get to the bottom of the matter because that has always been the normal language,” Wike said during a press conference in Abuja on October 31.
“The issue here has nothing to do with the Attorney General, we are happy he said he is not aware. We said, okay since you are not aware, we are giving you 48 hours to tell us who is responsible.”
The NBA had also called on the Federal Government to set up a panel to probe the siege, describing it as an assault on the judiciary.
“The grave implications of this possibility leave a lot to be desired,” the president of the NBA, Olumide Akpata, said in a statement.
“When viewed in the context of a similar raid on the premises of Supreme Court Justices in 2016, the rationale of which was never fully explained or indeed justified, the NBA interprets last night’s incident as a part of an orchestrated affront on the judiciary, designed to intimidate and ridicule the judiciary.” (Punch)
