Kinsmen of a suspected kidnapper, Kelvin Eziegbe, on Wednesday staged a rally at the premises of an Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court to protest against his prosecution by the State Security Service.
Kelvin, who was accused of masterminding the recent abduction of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, is facing trial alongside two alleged members of his gang, Frank Azuekoh and Haruna Momoh.
They were accused of masterminding and perpetrating kidnappings in the entire South-South region, as well as parts of the Federal Capital Territory.
However, the protesters, who said they were Kelvin’s kinsmen from the Kokori community, as well as the Urhobo nation, in Delta State, stormed the court to show solidarity with the accused persons at a hearing in the matter on Wednesday.
The group, who arrived at the court in some mass transit buses, insisted that Kelvin and his co-accused persons were “community activists,” who had been fighting the alleged injustice being perpetrated against the oil-rich Kokori community over the years.
They claimed that Kelvin was from the Ibruvwe family in Kokori community, which, despite being the ‘landlords’ of oil wells rated as the second best in the world, had remained impoverished because of neglect by the government and oil companies.
The protesters brandished various placards with messages such as ‘Enough of the injustice’, ‘Stop framing up our children’, ‘Urhobo cries out for justice’, ‘Kelvin, Frank and Haruna are law abiding Nigerians’, ‘These are our children in whom we are well pleased’, ‘Kokori is under siege, withdraw the soldiers’.
Counsel for the accused persons, Bala Dakum, in an interview with our correspondent after the court session, said the SSS had refused access to Kelvin and the others since they were arrested and brought to Abuja.
He said, “These people are from the Kokori community and representatives of the Urhobo nation of Delta State.
“They said these people that are being prosecuted are community activists fighting against injustice that has been meted to the community for years by the oil companies and the government.
“Since their arrest, nobody from the community has had access to them, even their lawyers.”
Meanwhile, the trial of the accused persons will move to the Abuja Federal High Court, as the SSS on Wednesday withdrew the charge it filed against them before the Chief Magistrate Court.
Punch
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