Lawyers protest insecurity, colleague’s killing in Bayelsa

Scores of lawyers on Monday protested the killing of one of
their colleagues in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, by armed
robbers.

The deceased, Pumokumo Abel Ozi, a member of the Human Right
Committee (HRC), in the state, was brutally killed by suspected
armed robbers on January 16.

Ozi was gunned down in broad daylight at Opolo along the
Mbiama-Yenagoa road, a few meters from the Police Area Command.

The assailants were said to have followed him from a bank where
he went to withdraw money and opened fire on him when he refused to
honour their order to open his car.

The Marauders were said to have also shot his drive and the two
other occupants of the car and snatched N2million he withdrew from
the bank.

Angry at the development, practising lawyers in the state under
the aegis of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Yenagoa and Sagbama
branches, marched the streets demanding justice for their
colleague.

Dressed in black attire, the aggrieved lawyers took their
complaints to the offices

of the Commissioner of Police and the State Director of
Department of State Services (DSS).

They bemoaned rising insecurity in Bayelsa especially in
Yenagoa, the state capital, saying the security agencies were not
doing enough.

The lawyers urged security agencies to uncover the circumstances
that led to the killing of Gberigbe colleagues and bring the
hoodlums to justice.

The Chairman of the NBA, Yenagoa, Branch, Clement Buruboyefe,
said the protest was against the general insecurity in the state
including the killing of their colleague.

He said: “As a body we had an emergency meeting and agreed that
we would embark on a peaceful solemn protest to register our
sadness over the death of our colleague and the state of insecurity
in Bayelsa state in general.

“The purpose is to call on all security agencies, not just the
police, but other stakeholders in the security of the state to beef
up security, not just Yenagoa, but Bayelsa in general.

“We have also pointedly called on the police to investigate and
apprehend the killer of our colleague and bring them to book”.

Also speaking, the Chairman of NBA, Sagbama Branch, Dise
Ogbise-Erhisere, said the protest was a solemn walk by both
branches of the NBA in the state to protest the high rate of
insecurity in the state.

She said: “We are not happy with the insecurity in the state,
snatching of phones, snatching of bags and money in broad daylight.
People cannot walk free in broad daylight, especially in
Yenagoa.

“Women are being raped in broad daylight. Children are being
defiled in broad daylight. Insecurity in the state on the issues I
just raised is what brought about the protest. But that aside, the
recent one that happened last week Wednesday was a dark Wednesday
for the NBA in the Bayelsa state.“