- By Halimah Olamide
This ugly incident is yet another sad reminder of the weakness in our security system and the failure of successive governments to live up to the Constitutional duty of providing for the welfare and security of all Nigerians.
A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Okey Wali, has been kidnapped by gun in PortHarcourt, the Rivers State Capital.
This the second time Wali, a PortHarcourt based Senior Advocate of Nigeria would be abducted having suffered the same fate in October 2014.
The President of the NBA, Yakubu Maikyau, in a statement, has called on the police hierarchy to intervene immediately and secure the release of its former President.
Asking the Inspector-General of Police and the police commissioner in Rivers State to do everything possible to ensure his release of Wali.
“I, therefore, hereby, plead with the abductors not to harm Mr Wali, SAN and make a passionate appeal for his release to his family.
“The NBA stands with and assures his family of our full support in this trying period, even as we join in praying for his safe return home,” the statement noted
He said Wali had served as the 26th NBA president between 2012 and 2014, and “ served this nation in varying capacities, contributing immensely to the growth of legal practice and in the promotion and entrenchment of the rule of law.”
The statement went further to state that “
This ugly incident is yet another sad reminder of the weakness in our security system and the failure of successive governments to live up to the Constitutional duty of providing for the welfare and security of all Nigerians.
“We urge the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, to leave no stone unturned as they work towards the safe release of our dear learned friend.”