The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has called for full investigation into the murder of an expectant lawyer, Nkiru Agbasu (née Ibe), who was a member of Warri branch.
In a press release signed by the chairman of the NBA Warri Branch and made available to The Nation, the lawyers express worry that she may have been assassinated as there is no trace of the vehicle she boarded or other passengers she traveled with.
The statement warned that her killing must not go unresolved like others before it.
According to the statement which condemned her killing and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to book, officers and members of the branch received with “rude shock the gruesome murder” on Tuesday, February 16.
The late lawyer was reportedly shot dead when suspected armed robbers attacked a commercial vehicle she boarded along the Warri-Sapele Expressway.
Parts of the statement read, “the report, though sketchy, indicates that Mrs. Nkiru Agbasu (nee Ibe) was traveling from Warri to Sapele, Delta State, when the alleged commercial vehicle she was traveling in was attacked at gun point by unknown armed men who shot at her. This was despite her being visibly and heavily pregnant.
“Until her death, she was a Legal Practitioner in active private legal practice with the Law firm of B. N. Okpuzo & Co., Warri, and was an active member of the Nigerian Bar Association, Warri Branch.
“The Branch condemns in totality the execution-style shooting of Mrs. Nkiru Agbasu (nee Ibe), who was heavily pregnant at the time of her death and states that her unwarranted murder is one attack too many, targeted at Lawyers carrying out their lawful duties.
“The Branch is worried and suspicious that, Mrs. Nkiru Agbasu (nee Ibe) might have been assassinated, as the alleged commercial vehicle where Mrs. Nkiru Agbasu (nee Ibe) was travelling in, is nowhere to be found and no occupant of the said vehicle can be traced.
“The Branch recalls with pain, the unresolved murder, in similar fashion of Eguono Horace Dafioghor, Esq. and Samuel Eguanghanju, Esq., both members of the NBA Warri Branch and happening within the last decade.
“Till date, the Nigerian Security Agencies, have failed to find the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, left the investigations inconclusive, the murders unresolved and the Branch and their immediate families crying for justice.
“The effrontery with which the perpetrators carried out the dastardly act of murder confirms the failure of Government to secure the lives and properties of citizens in Nigeria and Delta State in particular.
“In recent times, there has been an unprecedented increase in cases of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery etc, with lawful citizens at the mercy of these criminals, while the Government watches helplessly.”
The statement further called on the Federal and Delta State Government, as well as the various security agencies to “fulfill their constitutional responsibilities and urgently nip the rising cases of these crimes/offences within Delta State in the bud and indeed Nigeria generally.”
It further stressed on the branch’s demand that the murder of Mrs. Agbasu must not go the way of the previous unresolved murders of lawyers among others in the society.
The Nation