The Chairman of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police brutality and Extra-Judicial Killings in Warri, Delta State, Justice Celestina Ogisi (retd), on Monday, had a rough session with a Police lawyer, DSP S.B Irabor, with a threat by the justice to petition the Commissioner of Police over contempt.
The drama played out at the panel session when Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Eyoh Anietie, who had served as DPO in some police divisions in the state with sterling records, appeared before it over allegations of brutality.
The Police lawyer, DSP Irabor, had urged a member of the panel, Mr Gwamnishu Emefiena Harrison, to recuse himself from the panel having been arrested in times past by the police.
DSP Irabor said for being a suspect in police custody on such occasions in the past, Harrison was unqualified to sit as a member to hear a case involving CSP Anietie.
Miffed by the effrontery, Chairman of the Judicial Panel, Justice Ogisi, told DSP Irabor, the police lawyer, to take his petition to Governor, Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, saying: “None of us here were appointed by ourselves. The governor appointed us into this panel.”
“I know you’re a policeman. I will take you to the right place. Even if you’re the Inspector General of Police, you cannot. You have no right. You have made it a personal matter.
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“If the governor disqualifies Harrison, then, he has to disqualify all of us in this panel for being bias. Write to the governor, we have no authority to entertain it here,” Justice Ogisi threatened.
While further, the embattled member of the panel, Justice Ogisi noted that whatever Harrison might have had with CSP Anietie or any other person, he did same as a human right activist.
She further pointed out that he (Harrison) is a member of the panel by virtue of being a human rights activist.
Not done, Secretary of the Judicial Panel and Solicitor General of the Ministry of Justice in Delta State, Mr Omamuzo Erebe, who was visibly angry, also threatened to report the Police lawyer to the Commissioner of Police.
Another member of the Panel, Kelvin Ejumudo, in his reaction urged DSP Irabor to continue with his case rather than casting aspersions on the panel.
Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer, Mr Oghenejabor Ikimi Esq, in a chat with newsmen at the sidelines, said the cases he was handling against CSP Anietie were not personal.
“When I came in this morning, we greeted. You have to leave everything open and not take it personally,” he mooted.
and then