Embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen has written a petition to the acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, over alleged threat to the lives of workers on his farm in Masaka, Nasarawa State.
According to Thisday newspaper, the petition written filed yesterday by his counsel, Mr. Ogwu Onoja, SAN, alleged that men suspected to be herdsmen were at the farm on February 1, during the afternoon and also later at night, inquiring about the owner of the farm and issued frightening threats to the farmers.
Onoja stated that the workers are now living in dreadful fear and have consequently stopped all farming activities.
According to Onoja, the farm, which belongs to the family of Onnoghen, is a large commercial venture that provides employment to a large number of people who live on the farm and tend to the commercial poultry, piggery, livestock as well as cash and food crops on the farm.
While the petitioner said the threat of the herders was being considered as an indication of imminent attack on the lives and property on the farm, he called on the IG and police to urgently move in and forestall any possible destruction of lives and property at the farm.
He said in part: “We implore you, in the discharge of your constitutional duty as the Chief Police Officer of the nation, to deploy your men to secure the farm to avoid a breakdown of law and order, the possible unleashing of mayhem on the workers, destruction of the farm, including the property thereon and the disruption of ongoing farming activities particularly in this season of harvest.
“We also call for a thorough, exhaustive and stringent investigation into this matter so as to unearth the identities of the persons behind this menace.
“We trust that you will use your good offices to quash this impending threat and help restore confidence of the people in the farm and its immediate environ.”