There is rising outrage as Judge imprisons human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, to one month in jail.
Inibehe Effiong is defending a client in a libel suit filed by Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State at the State’s High Court presided by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Ekaette Obot, in Uyo.
Justice Obot had did everything to ensure secret proceedings on the suit and the imprisonment of the lawyer without trial, but was unable to overcome the sophistication of modern information technology through which his actions were exposed.
Inibehe Effiong in a message posted on his WhatsApp status around 10.40 a.m. on Wednesday, declared: “I have been sent to Uyo prison by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Justice Ekaette Obot, for one month for defending Leo Ekpenyong in a libel suit filed by Governor Udom Emmanuel.”
Inibehe Effiong was said to be residing in Lagos but went to Uyo to defend his client in the suit.
Barrister Effiong subsequently revealed details of his imprisonment on Twitter. According to him: “The Chief Judge of Akwa Akwa Ibom ordered a Premium Times Reporter to leave the court. I said my lord, we were thinking that since the proceeding is public, that members of the public should be allowed to observe the proceeding. My Lord asked me to proceed with cross examination.”
He declared: “I will be going to the Uyo Correctional Centre now. I have not done anything. I wasn’t even opportunity to say anything before the “conviction”. Two lawyers in court appealed to the Hon. Chief Judge but my Lord insisted that I must be jailed.”
A concerned citizen had berated that action of the judge, lamenting that Nigerians have been silent on the issue because the governor involved in the suit is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying that if it had been a governor of the All Progressives Congress (APC), people would have taken to the streets in protest.
Taking to his twitter handle, Akin Akinwale @mrlurvy he wrote: “Inibehe Efiong has been sent to prison in Akwa Ibom on a matter wey (which) involves his friend and a PDP Governor in the South-South region. “No outrage.
“If na (it’s) APC Governor ehn, protest go don (would have) start for (at) Alausa in Lagos. Na (it’s) selective activism we like pass for this street.”
It was disclosed that Chief Justice Obot had in previous sitting directed court officials to seize the telephone handsets of journalists and other people in the courtroom. It was insinuated that the aim was to prevent people from recording the proceedings.