In A Matter Of Time -By Sesugh Akume

‘When your neighbour’s house is on fire, you should help with a bucket of water.’ ~ Yahya Jammeh

Helping put out the fire consuming a neighbour’s house, even where not out of good neighborliness, should be for basic self preservation; as after consuming the neighbour’s ones house is next.

On 27 July 2022, Justice Ekaete Obot, acting chief judge of Akwa Ibom, sentenced Inibehe Effiong, one of Nigeria’s leading human rights and constitutional lawyers, to prison for 30 days for contempt of court, for doing no wrong, the evidence says.

Effiong had reminded the judge that there was an application for recusal before the judge that hadn’t been taken, either to grant and deny. He had applied to the court for her to recuse herself from the matter and assign it to a neutral judge.

Second, the judge had invited 2 mobile policemen with AK-47 assault rifles into the courtroom, and he applied to the court to kindly excuse the armed men as it made him apprehensive. (Having armed personal with assault rifles in a courtroom is strange.) For this he has been imprisoned and undergone torture whilst in prison.

What is the back story?

Effiong’s client, Leo Ekpenyong, also a lawyer, was found guilty by this very same judge of libel in two separate suits with both judgments granted on 15 December 2020. In the suit by Udom Emmanuel, the Akwa Ibom governor, Ekpenyong was to pay 1.5 billion naira in damages; in that by Effiong Bob, a former senator, 150 million naira.

When Effiong came into the case, he applied to the court to on 25 November 2021 to set aside both judgements as they violated the Nigerian constitution, and to extend the time to accommodate what he brought before the court as the time had long elapsed. The judge scolded him harshly but on 16 February 2022 indeed granted both applications.

It was even a more bumpy ride from them on. At the penultimate sitting of the court she threatened to cite him for contempt and imprison him for a month, and nothing would happen. That she’d make sure he spent a month in prison and unable to appeal within the time.

To be sure, applying to a court for a judge to recuse themselves is a standard and routine procedure. It is simply granted or denied.

In this particular case, Ekpenyong feared the judge was bias and not in a position to give him a fair trial. First this was a judge who with both eyes open gave a flawed judgement contrary to the Nigerian constitution. Another reason was that this judge has personal ties with Effiong Bob, and was seen at his daughter’s wedding. This presented a conflict of interests as there were concerns that she would be inclined to bend the law to suit that individual.

He also addressed the mind of the court to the impropriety of admitting 3 pieces of evidence tendered by opposing counsel, whereas only 1 had been pleaded and the rules are clear that only pleaded evidence can be admitted. He also raised the issue of the 1 piece of evidence being inadmissible as it wasn’t accompanied with a certificate of compliance being electronically generated according to the Evidence Act.

She was angry and spoke roughly to him, belittled and demeaned him as person in open court, questioned his knowledge of the law, and even used expletives on him. ‘Please shut up!’, ‘I don’t care about all the shit’, she told him using language unbecoming of judge. All above isn’t news as it was widely reported in the media from 1 July. On 27 July she made good her threat and indeed sent him to prison.

The report of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which thoroughly investigated the matter indicates that Inibehe Effiong did no wrong, he wasn’t given a fair trial, and the judge did not follow the law nor procedure in the sentencing. The association also said all attempts to get the judge to review her decision was met with a stiff brick wall.

Effiong was sent to the Ikot Ekpene correctional centre for 30 days. On night of Wednesday 10 August, however, he was handcuffed—even though there is no evidence of violence on his part or of skill in the use of firearms, or risk of flight—and transferred to the correctional centre at Uyo.

At the Uyo correctional centre, he was made to sit in the bare floor, his hair and beard forcefully shaven with a blunt instrument, humiliated and made a spectacle before inmates. The warders reportedly told him that there they treat inmates as animals.

The spokesman of the Nigeria Correctional Service in Akwa Ibom, Richard Metong, has said he was shaven with a clipper and as part of ‘security measures’. Many of us have seen inmates with hair on their heads and beards. Somebody clearly is lying here.

Ekaete Obot on her side has refused to sign her own judgement, which is a mandatory when applied for, as it is a requirement for an appeal. Meaning in Nigeria, a judge can choose to stall the course of justice at will, violating the constitution? It all depends on the meaning the rest of us choose to give it.

Others think this is about Inibehe Effiong, no it is not. Some, including lawyers unfortunately, have said he should have known where to stop with his ‘activism’ and not take it to court. We are by this setting ourselves up for what is beyond us all, of we all fail to see this abuse for what it is and do not rise in unison against such abominations.

If a lawyer can’t defend their client and of all places in a court of law, I wonder where else they can, or what becomes of citizens when lawyers, ministers in the temple of justice are treated as scum, and many have accepted it as a norm. To whom are the people to go when I’m trouble or situations arise?

If a lawyer is treated like a slave, less than a animal and dispossessed of his basic humanity, what becomes of the everyday citizen? If a human rights lawyer fighting for others day and night is so dehumanised and it goes unchallenged by everyday citizens and with no consequences to the offenders, we had all better brace to be less than beasts in a banana republic.

I know Nigerians to well, some have snapped their fingers and said ‘God forbid, it’s not my portion.’ Congratulations, it’s not your portion indeed! You think it is Inibehe Effiong’s portion? You think God values you more than someone who has dedicated his entire personal and professional life to fighting for the poor, weak, oppressed; a voice for the voiceless who selflessly has given himself for a better society? Think again.

If a judge is allowed to act like a loose cannon with such impunity to grant judgements that they know have no basis in law, sentence including lawyers to prison at will, insult lawyers, and refuse to sign their own judgements; with zero regard for the constitution they swore to uphold; where law enforcement officers have zero regard for the constitution, zero regard for the Anti-Torture Act, it’s only testing the microphone.

By the time Udom Emmanuel, Effiong Bob, Ekaete Obot succeed unchallenged in Uyo, that will be a clear signal to the 35 other emperors we call governors to do worse and nothing will happen. We haven’t come to Buhari yet. At that time it can only be imagined how things’ll be. It’s only a matter of time. What goes around comes around. Then it’ll spare no one. Nigeria will happen to each one of us. It’s only a matter of time.

Sesugh Akume, a public policy analyst wrote from Abuja. He is reached via sesugh.akume@gmail.com.