Posted by By CHRISTIAN ITA on
The travails of former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju continued unabated last Tuesday as prisons officials moved him from Onitsha to Awka prisons for 'security reasons".
The travails of former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju continued unabated last Tuesday as prisons officials moved him from Onitsha to Awka prisons for 'security reasons".
The decision to move Mbadinuju who was remanded in the prison custody penultimate Thursday, by an Onitsha Chief Magistrate Court presided over by Mrs. Mabel Mbakwe over his alleged involvement in the murder of late Barrister Barnabas Igwe, former chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Onitsha branch and his wife Amaka on September 1, 2002, arose from security reports that Mbadinuju could be mobbed.
It is expected that the former governor would be driven from Awka prisons straight to the High Court on January 19 for continued trial.
Mbadinuju was re-arrested and re-arraigned at the Onitsha Chief Magistrate Court after he was granted bail in Abuja on the same offence and brought to Awka from where he was driven in a Hilux police van before he was remanded in the prison custody Chief Magistrate Mbakwe's insistence that she had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter, least of all grant him bail.
While the former governor finds a new abode in Awka prison, Chairman of NBA, Aguata branch, Chief Cosmas Ezeanowai-Obiezu described Mbadinuju's arrest, arraignment, trial and detention as a step in the right direction.
Ezeanowai-Obiezu also said that the situation has shown that both the police and the judiciary are gradually becoming alive to their responsibilities.
The lawyer said that Mbadinuju's travails would serve as a deterrent to both present and future leaders, pointing out that those currently holding public offices should be more humane in their dealings with their subjects.
He urged the authorities to handle Mbadinuju's case with fairness to ensure that justice is not only done, but seen to have been done.