ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
Some ex-Militant leaders have raised the alarm over an assassination attempt on the life of one of the lawyers handling the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) beneficiaries suit against some contractors over unexecuted contracts at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The ex-agitators, under the aegis of the Reintegrated Ex-Militants Forum (REF), described as unfortunate, wicked and unthinkable, the recent attack on the Abuja home of the lawyer involved in the ongoing suit on the vandalised ₦60bn PAP Training Complex in Boro Town, Kaiama in Bayelsa State.
It claimed that the targeted lawyer, representing the 124 beneficiaries of PAP in court, had enjoined the court to stop the illegal payment of over ₦3.8b to 15 companies with regard to the alleged unexecuted contracts.
The group said the attack on the residence of the lawyer in Kubwa Extension II area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) left one security guard dead and three others injured.
REF, in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.), the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, said the targeted lawyer survived because he was attending the last Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Lagos.
The group urged the relevant authorities to investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book.
In the petition signed by REF’s National Coordinator, Tony Ebikalaide, also known as ‘Black Spider’, the group said: “The 124 Amnesty Beneficiaries had applied to be joined in the suit filed by Jacob Aminu Momoh and 15 contracting firms against the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) to pay for an alleged unexecuted contracts above the tune of ₦3.8b, plus 21 per cent post-judgment fees, and special damages which can go as high as ₦5b to ₦8b.
“They have also accused officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice led by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba of colluding with Jacob Aminu Momoh and the accused companies in an alleged attempts to frustrate their suit at the court.”
The group noted: “The lawyer had in a few days prior to the day of the incident spotted a black Range Rover trailing him and had received a phone call from the petitioner’s (Jacob Aminu Momoh) legal team to ascertain his whereabouts for service, but events turned for the worst during the early hours of the morning, on Wednesday, 24 August 2022 when the alleged hired assassins wearing face masks stormed the secured residence of the lawyer in a community in Kubwa, Abuja and attacked four security guards with one dead, three in critical condition.
“But despite the resistance of the attack, the attackers refused to retreat, rather they forced their way into the secured building and broke down the front door of the lawyer’s home while shouting ‘where is the lawyer?’, ‘where is the Barrister?’
“The lawyer’s scared wife was home alone because her husband was still in Lagos after the NBA conference. But when they could not find the lawyer, they took a few items worth less than ₦10,000 to make it look like a robbery, and with the increasing noise outside, they hurriedly departed the premises.”
The group quoted the lawyer as saying that in the seven years of his living in that community, and in their secured building, that was the first time that such a tragedy had occurred, and that it was not a coincidence that his compound, especially his house, was attacked.
The REF in their petition to the President vowed to take matters into their own hands in the way they know best, saying they had lost faith in the security agencies to do their jobs without compromise.
The group also vowed to have a “showdown with officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice.”
REF said: “These conspirators have refused to leave our Amnesty business alone for us. They conspired in a failed assassination attempt on a peaceful lawyer that is doing his legal job by representing Amnesty beneficiaries in court because they intended to sabotage the case and put fear in people.
“These conspirators think that they are powerful because they have security officials running around them temporarily which will expire soon. They will hear from us and they will know that we are ex-militants. The amarteur game that they are playing is our full-time business with multiple years of experience.”