Justice Okocha cries out over threats to judges’ lives

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Dispensation of Justice in Rivers state has become a highly perilous business and judges have become so endangered that they are now scared stiff to go to court because of threats to their lives.

This is the kernel of the alarm the Chief Judge of Rivers State Justice Daisy Okocha has raised.

She alleged threats to the lives of judges in the state by unidenfied persons on phone.

Justice Okocha cited the example of a serving judge who recently chaired a Judicial Commission of Inquiry who has been receiving death threats from faceless persons, and called for increased security around judges in the state.

She also said judges in the state were afraid of resuming work at the courts that were bombed last year by unidentifed persons in Degema, Ahoada and Okehi at the peak political crisis due to the lax security around the courts.

In his response, the State Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, urged judges to treat police orderlies attached to them with respect.

He promised to look into the security challenges the judges were facing in the state.

At the meeting were by top judges in Rivers State Judiciary and senior police officers in the state.