A horde of security operatives on Friday invaded the Abuja residence of Supreme Court Judge, Justice Mary Odili, armed with a warrant to search the house from the Ministry of Justice.
The security operatives who are believed to be officers of the Nigeria Police and mostly dressed in mufti came to the house following a tip-off that some “strange activities were taking place inside the house”.
The police officers were joined in the operation by another unidentified squad of military officers.
The security operatives stormed the Maitama home of Justice Odili about 6 pm determined to execute the warrant to search her residence.
Within minutes, they had seized the entire perimeter of the house, using one of their vehicles with a covered number plate to block the front gate of the house.
About eight of them then forced their way into the building but were unable to get to the inner room of Justice Odili.
The raid lasted over an hour; enough time to call the attention of many who rushed to the home of the justice of the Supreme Court to find out what was going on.
Confirming the incident, lawyer to Justice Odili, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome described the invasion as “unfortunate and embarrassing.
He faulted the search warrant the security operatives allegedly came with on two grounds.
First was that the document had no name on it and secondly that it had a wrong address.
According to Ozekhome, while the warrant had on it, No 9, Imo Street, Odili’s house is on No 7 Imo River, Maitama.
Ozekhome, however, did not rule out the theory that the invasion could have been politically motivated.
River State Governor, Nysom Wike, who was in Abuja for PDP National Convention quickly rushed to the scene almost as soon as he got wind of what had happened but declined to speak to journalists on the ground.
Others who rushed to the home of Justice Odili were former Minister of Transport, Abiye Sekibo, Founder/Chairman Emeritus, DAAR Communication, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, former Deputy Speaker, River State, Austin Opara, a number of former federal lawmakers including Senator Aniete Okon, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, and Senator Lee Maeba.
Others were former Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Kenneth Kobani, and Honorable Igo Aguma who narrated the gestapo manner the security operatives forced themselves into the compound, afraid that Nigeria had fallen back to those heinous days when independent judges were hounded down, harassed, and intimidated.
Speaking with reporters, Senator Betty Apiafi who currently represents Justice Odili in the Senate also condemned the invasion in very strong terms, describing it as “ unnecessary harassment”.
She also did not rule out the possibility that the incident has political links even as she expressed shock that none of the security agencies has owned up to the invasion.
Justice Mary Odili is wife to frontline Nigerian politician and former Governor of River State, Peter Odili and the invasion of her home came a few hours to the National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja.