Human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has said the raid on Justice Mary Odili’s home, allegedly perpetrated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, could be politically motivated.
Ozekhome, who visited Odili after the incident, also revealed that the judge did not resist the raid.
He said, “She didn’t resist any search. I believe that they themselves would have found that they were committing terrible hara-kiri, that is, giving them the benefit of the doubt,”
“The other theory which is also as powerful is that it is politically motivated, deliberately contrived as artifice and designed to embarrass this cerebral justice of the supreme court and to embarrass her husband.”
Justice Odili is the wife of a former governor of Rivers state, and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Odili, who is currently on the watchlist of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Ozekhome inferred that the raid could have been carried to stoke fire ahead of the PDP National convention happening today in Abuja adding that the raid was an embarrassment for Nigeria.
“Of course, the husband is a well-known PDP titan, and tomorrow is the PDP convention. Could it have been designed to rake up issues and make it look like they were trying to go after him so as to demoralise the delegates for tomorrow’s convention? That is another theory.
“But whatever theory, one thing is clear to me, we are gradually moving towards the precipice of calling ourselves a banana republic. Nowhere in the world would secret agents just bump into the house of a justice of the supreme court and a former governor with an empty search warrant with no name written on it.”
Meanwhile, the EFCC has denied the raid on the justice’s house claiming they were not involved.
PUNCH
