By BARBARA KALU, Owerri –
The Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Rita Pemu has escaped an assassination attempt by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers while traveling to Owerri from Benin City.
NATIONAL ACCORD learnt that the incident occured along Azia-Orsumoghu-Ihiala Road about 11am on Sunday.
A statement issued on Monday by the Secretary of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Owerri branch, Chinedu Agu, said the kidnappers double-crossed His Lordship’s vehicle at a speed break, disembarking her and ordering her to lie prostrate on the road, while pointing guns menacingly on her head.
According to the statement: “Hon. Justice Pemu, who by happenstance was rather in her Hiace Bus instead of her SUV and was dressed in a simple, spartan and free-flowing gown was mistaken by the Kidnappers as one of “oga’s stewards,” as they kept demanding to know in which car their “oga” was. While she was matched into a thick forest, one of the Kidnappers, the Secretariat gathered, was boasting that he would have wasted their oga if he were there.
“As his Lordship was matched into the Bush like a death-destined Sheep to the slaughter, gun shots and concomitant cries of anguish pervaded the bush, which heightened her apprehension.
“As the Kidnappers backed out for his Lordship to continue the Golgotha walk into the depth of the bush, where perhaps she would face the doomed fate of others, she detoured and took safety elsewhere, and was hurried back to Orlu town in disguise from where she found her way into Owerri.
The NBA, however condemned the spate of kidnapping and unsettling height of insecurity in the State, while thanking God for the life of Hon. Justice Rita Pemu.
As at the time of this report, His Lordship’s official cars, her Driver, her personal property inside the car are yet to be found.
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