Inibehe Effiong: Uyo Prisons rejects lawyer ordered jailed by Chief Judge

Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong has been left hanging after the Uyo Correctional Centre in Akwa Ibom State refused to admit him, having been jailed for one month by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ekaette Obot.

Effiong had alerted the nation earlier in the day through his social media handles that Justice Obot, for no apparent reason, had ordered him jailed.

“I have just been sent to Uyo prison by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Justice Ekaette Obot, for one month for defending Leo Ekpenyong in the libel suit filed by Governor Udom Emmanuel,” he had written on his Twitter handle.

“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.

“I will be going to the Uyo Correctional Centre now. I have not done anything. I wasn’t even given the opportunity to say anything before the “conviction”.

On getting to Uyo prison, the officers their refused to admit him, citing COVID protocols.

The lawyer in turn updated his handle, tweeting: “They’re saying that I can’t be jailed in Uyo prison because of COVID protocol; that I have to be in Ikot Ekpene prison. Uyo prison has rejected me. We are going back to the court now for His Lordship to determine where I should be jailed. History will vindicate the just.”

READ: Judge sends human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong to prison

At the time of this report, he was back at the court in Uyo. “Inside van at Uyo prison waiting for the issue of custody to be determined, between Uyo or Ikot Ekpene prison. History will vindicate the just,” the lawyer tweeted again.

He further gave an insight into what led to his predicament.

In a series of tweet, he wrote: “The moment My Lord entered the Courtroom, His Lordship ordered the orderly attached to the court to go out and bring the armed policemen inside the courtroom. I started feeling that there was going to be trouble. After the Premium Times reporter was sent out, I raised the issue.

“I applied to the Court to ask the armed policemen with AK47 to leave the courtroom, that it was not proper and that I felt extremely unsafe and uncomfortable. My Lord then started writing, I thought it was going to be a ruling on my application to excuse the officers.

“Unknown to me, my Lord was writing committal order to send me to Uyo prison. I wasn’t even given the opportunity to say anything. My Lord just ordered me to remove my wig and gown, that I was going to prison.

“Meanwhile, we have a pending motion for my Lord to disqualify and recuse himself from the case on grounds of bias or likelihood of bias… Justice will vindicate the just.”

Reacting to the whole drama, the former Chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu, said Nigerians should not worry about Effiong but the country that threw up a judge like Obot.

“Don’t worry about @InibeheEffiong. He will be fine. Worry instead about a country in which people like this Madam (Justice Obot) find themselves being addressed as judge,” Odinkalu tweeted in response to a Twitter user.