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A minimum of 26 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have signed a petition calling on the intervention of the United Nations within the “unjust incarceration” of the rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong by Akwa Ibom State Chief Decide, Ekaette Obot.
The CSOs, below the auspices of the Civil Society Coalition on Free Inibehe Effiong (CSCOFI), stated the lawyer is in peril and may lose his life after he was tortured by jail officers at Uyo Custodial Centre.
Their petition, dated 12 August, was despatched to the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, by way of the UN Particular Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.
The group stated Justice Obot’s committal of Mr Effiong to 30 days in jail for alleged contempt of courtroom was with out due course of and honest listening to.
In addition they alleged a connivance between the judiciary and govt in Akwa Ibom as a result of the Governor of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel, is a celebration within the matter.
“Mr Effiong was not placed on the dock, informed what his fallacious and contempt was, given honest listening to and even alternative to recant or purge himself,” the group stated, calling on the UN to ask the Nigerian Authorities to steer Justice Obot to finish the “impunity”.
The incarcerated lawyer, Mr Effiong, was at Justice Obot’s courtroom to defend his shopper in a defamation case during which Governor Emmanuel is the claimant.
Mr Effiong had in earlier proceedings requested the choose to recuse herself from the case.
The lawyer, on the 27 July listening to, objected to the presence of two armed cops introduced into the courtroom on the order of the chief choose.
In a courtroom proceedings launched after she was sued, Justice Obot stated she dedicated Mr Effiong to 30 days imprisonment for his “unruly behaviour.”
Mr Effiong served the primary two weeks of his sentence at Ikot Ekpene Custodial Centre of the Nigeria Correctional Service.
He was later transferred to Uyo Custodial Centre to serve the remaining days.
The lawyer was reportedly abused by jail officers who scraped his hair and beard.
Mr Effiong’s incarceration has attracted condemnations by a number of teams throughout Nigeria.
Some teams have held protests in Uyo, calling for his launch.
The Nigerian Bar Affiliation (NBA) has additionally faulted the process adopted by Justice Obot in jailing the lawyer.
The NBA President, Olumide Akpata, threatened to take up the case with the Nationwide Judicial Council.
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