An Uyo high court Judge, Justice Okon Okon, on Tuesday narrowly escaped assassination attempt by a battalion of kidnappers from Rivers State.
The dreaded kidnappers stormed the high court premises on Tuesday morning, raining threats on justice Okon over the death sentence on their colleagues the previous day.
The assasination attempt came less than 24 hours after the previous day’s condemnation of four kidnappers to death.
The condemned kidnappers, Bernard Efe Ajomaya, Christian Charles Naya, Daniel West and Shedrach Dick Dala had immediately after the sentence demonstrated signs of resistance and rebellion right in the courtroom.
Immediately after the Presiding Judge pronounced the death sentence, the condemned criminals who went berserk, destroying the window of the court-room, causing pandemonium in Ikot Ekpene Road, where the court is located, rained abuses on the judge and also threatened to kill Akwa Ibom State Government Prosecution team.
The situation worsened with other courts, litigants and lawyers running helter-skelter for dear life. For about an hour, the kidnappers refused to leave the Courtroom throwing the scene into pandemonium.
It took the intervention of the detachment of soldiers and Police to rein the criminals in, taking them into a waiting prison van.
•Daily Independent
