Most Rev. Jonas-Benson Okoye, the Auxiliary Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Awka said on Saturday that the Nov. 6 governorship election in Anambra must hold.
He said he took the position because the alternative was to have a Constitutional crisis in the state.
“Many are trying to frustrate preparations for the election; this is a sign that if we don’t vote, they will destroy us and our faith.
“We can’t get justice or freedom by sitting at home; the only thing to do to save the situation is to come out next Saturday with your Permanent Voter Cards to vote for the right candidate,’’ he said.
Okoye made his views known when he spoke at the funeral Mass for Chief Julius Odinigwe, a staunch member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church Enugu-Ukwu in Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.
He called on eligible members of the church and people of Anambra to go out and cast their votes on Election Day.
The bishop said his message to further awaken the people on the need to ensure the governorship election held became necessary to avert the Constitutional crisis that could follow the disruption of the exercise.
He admonished voters to choose a candidate that would save the people and not entertain fears to cast their votes.
Okoye, described late Odinigwe as a man who spent his life expanding the Christian faith.
He empathised with his family and prayed to God for eternal repose of his soul.
In the Requiem Mass sermon, Rev. Fr. Chidi Ozumba from SS Peter and Paul Catholic Church Nise, Anambra, reminded the congregation of the inevitability of death for all mortals, and tasked every individual to renew their relationship with God.
Odinigwe who died at the age of 81 years was retired civil servant, a devout Catholic and major contributor to the socio-economic development of Enugu-Ukwu, his community.
He was survived by Mrs Maria Odinigwe, his widow, sons, daughters and grandchildren.
Prominent pro-democracy and Civil Rights Advocacy Group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has carpeted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for lying that it never invaded the Maitama home of the Supreme Court of Nigeria Justice Mrs. Mary Odili for over 5 hours.
The Rights group said telling lie about the exercise in which EFCC participated as disclosed by report from the Chief magistrate court makes the EFCC a tool for political WITCH-HUNT. HURIWA also condemns the federal ministry of justice for cooking up lies which deceived the Chief magistrate in Abuja to issue a search warrant at the home of the reverred jurist of the highest court in the land. HURIWA wonders why this federal government has continued to embarass, harass, intimidate and torture justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria by using armed security forces to invade their privacy with the aim of getting them to become afraid and to do the bidding of the executive arm of government.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) condemns the raid on the premises of the Supreme Court’s Justice Mrs. Mary Odili whose husband, former Rivers State’s governor Mr. Peter Odili belonged to the main opposition political party- Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and who had only just defeated the Nigerian Immigration Service in the competent court of law and retrieved his international travelling document which was seized at the International Airport Abuja.
Reacting to the news of the siege at the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili the Rights group said it was unfortunate that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has become a full blown dictatorship going by the patterns of horrendous attacks of persons perceived as not pliable or amenable to be used as instruments of vendetta and political witch hunt.
The Rights group said Mrs. Mary Odili may have been targeted not just for being the wife of a prominent elder of the main opposition political party of the Peoples Democratic Party but most likely because of her consistency in giving sound, qualitative, merit and law based judgments at the Supreme Court of Nigeria particularly in some cases that the ruling All Progressive Congress may have vested interest.
“We think the military invasion was aimed at harassing her into playing the role of the good puppet of the President because the officials of the Federal government are aware of her pedigree and her reputation as a no nonsense judge who renders judgement based on facts, evidence and the laws “, HURIWA affirmed.
Besides, HURIWA condemns the federal government for authorising the raid and the dangerous siege at the home of the reverred jurist of the highest court in the land going by the disclosure made by the Chief magistrate in Abuja to the effect that the Justice ministry in Abuja lied to obtain a search warrant which the armed agencies relied upon to collectively invade the home of the Supreme Court Justice in Maitama Abuja and interrupted the free flow of traffic of hundreds of Nigerians.
Citing media report, HURIWA recalled that a Chief Magistrates’ Court had revoked a search warrant granted to the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice to search the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili.
HURIWA recalled that the panel, which comprises the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the Ministry of Justice, had obtained a search warrant from the magistrates’ court after a so called whistleblower, Aliyu Umar, claimed to have observed illegal activities going on at No. 9, Imo Street, Maitama, Abuja.
Umar’s affidavit dated October 13, 2021, read in part, “I have observed some illegal activities going on in those houses within Abuja are illegal and hereby report the said matter to the law enforcement agency. “I hereby state that all information provided by me to the EFCC is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.” in a second affidavit deposed to by a senior police officer, CSP Lawrence Ajodo, the panel applied to the chief magistrate in Abuja seeking a search warrant to search the house.
HURIWA recalled that the Chief Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, who subsequently approved the search warrant on October 29, 2021 later revoked it claiming that the Applicants for the search warrants deceived him into issuing the search warrants going by what he termed misrepresentation.
Similarly, HURIWA condemned the EFCC who through its spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said, in a statement, that the commission had no hand in the matter and advised members of the public to disregard any news to the contrary.
The statement read in part, “The attention the EFCC has been drawn to claims in a section of the media that operatives of the commission today, October 29, 2021 stormed the Maitama, Abuja home of a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili, purportedly to execute a search.
“The commission, by this statement, wishes to inform the public that the report is false as it did not carry out any operation at the home of Justice Odili. If there was any such operation as claimed by the media, it was not carried out by the EFCC. The commission enjoins the public to discountenance the report.”
HURIWA has therefore called on the EFCC to apologise publicly to Nigerians for lying that it never participated in the raid because the information made available to the Nigerian public from the Chief magistrate shows otherwise that the EFCC was in the team of armed security invaders of the home of Justice Mary Odili.
HURIWA is therefore demanding that strong sanctions are slammed on the individuals who lied under oath to obtain by trick the search warrant that the armed team relied on to invade the premises of the Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria just as the Rights group said if the Federal government fails to charge for perjury the persons who got the search warrant on the basis of falsehood, it will then become notorious that we now have a bunch of persons in the Federal Government who are not only professional liars but are persons who are totally unfit to occupy any position of responsibility in the twenty first century Nigeria.
At least 20 personnel comprising of the Nigerian security and civil defence corps (NSCDC) and local vigilantes have been reportedly killed in Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State, North West Nigeria and their bodies set ablaze by daredevil bandits operating in the state.
Dailypost gathered that the slain security personnel were deployed to a village where bandits have been ravaging for a long time unabated.
It was gathered that the daredevil bandits ambushed the security operatives, killed scores of them and set the corpses on fire in the early hours of Friday.
Among the victims was Alhaji Shehu Mallami, a prominent resident of the community.
The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in the state, Mr. Aminu Mary confirmed the incident, saying that the state commandant of the corps had already left to the scene to ascertain what really happened.
Security operstives in Zamfara have been targeted by bandits operating in the state lately. In September, bandits attacked a military base in the state and killed 12 military personnel mostly men if the Nigerian navy.
The Nigerian government in August sanctioned a network shutdown to curtail the activities of the bandits operating in the state but the move hasn’t yielded the expected results as the bandits have continued to launch attacks against both civilians and military targets.
