Video showing the moment Bayelsa State High Court Judge, Justice Ebiyerin Omukoro was kidnapped has emerged.
Fresh facts have emerged on how yet-to-be-identified gunmen abducted a Bayelsa State High Court Judge, Justice Ebiyerin Omukoro, at the Ekeki suburb of Yenagoa, the state capital.
On Saturday night, Justice Omukoro of Court 7 was seized in front of a popular eatery, Kilimanjaro, near the usually busy Ekeki motor park after a struggle.
According to sources, he was in the company of two of his daughters to buy a loaf of bread from the eatery when the gunmen struck.
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Many believed that the abducted judge might have been trailed to the eatery by the masked armed men clad in black combat attire.
It was learned that two gunmen were sighted coming down from a white Hilux van, tapping on the glass of the Judge’s Prado jeep, which was rolled down. He (Justice Omukoro) was said to be on call with his mobile phone.
One eyewitness said he overheard the gunmen telling the judge, “our Oga wants to see you”, but the judge replied, “Are you aware am a judge? Tell your Oga to come and see me here.”
The source added that the armed men walked away from the judge’s car and made some calls to an unknown person.
“Three of the gunmen later walked back, banging loudly on the judge’s car and forcibly opened the door and dragged him down.
“The judge was seen struggling with the gunmen, but nobody could venture to move close.
He was eventually forced into their car, a white Hilux van, unchallenged and whisked away,” the source said.
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It was, however, learned that the kidnappers left the telephone of the judge and another phone believed to be owned by one of them at the crime scene.
A source told this reporter on Sunday that the phones that fell down during the struggle to forcibly abduct the judge who resisted them have been handed over to the police in Yenagoa.
A resident, who spoke anonymously for safety reasons, said: “We initially thought the gunmen were either police operatives or men of the Department of State Services, DSS, but the guns they were carrying were not that of the Secret Service, neither was their uniform written police. But they wore black combat uniforms with bulletproof vests.
“It was not until the real police arrived that we suspected foul play, that the armed men were kidnappers.”
Police sources at the Ekeki Divisional Headquarters also confirmed that a passerby picked up phones, including that of the judge, which were turned in.
Justice Umokoro, a one-time State Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, is known for driving himself around town without his security detail during off duty.
Contacted, the Spokesman of the state police command, Musa Mohammed, said the police have commenced a discreet investigation into the matter.
