*Citizens blame Police for continued violence in the state, country
Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the President of the Court of Appeal, has relocated the Kogi Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal from Lokoja to Abuja.
A statement by Mr David Umar Mike, Secretary of the Tribunal, said that its sittings would now be at the National Judicial Institute on Umar Yar’Adua Way.
It urged litigants to take note of the change in venue.
The statement was silent on the reason behind the relocation, but a top source at the tribunal said the step was necessitated by “security reasons.”
The source said that members of staff of the tribunal had been attacked on several occasions in Loloja.
“Just last Monday, tribunal officials were attacked on the way to the office.
“Armed men just pounced on the officials. They robbed them of everything. They took away all the documents that were in the car.
“Copies of petitions and personal belongings, official receipts, processes like subpoena, official stamps, were all stolen.
“Generally, thugs are frustrating the job and the lives of our officials are at stake, making it difficult to work there,” the source said,” the source said.
NAN reports that the All Progressive Congress won the Nov. 11 off-cycle election, with the Social Democratic Party coming second.
Members of the public who reacted to the development said it is a heavy indictment on the Nigeria Police as every signal to the brigandage and other forms of violence have been visible to even a kindergarten, yet they did not to prevent its occurence and may never find the perpetrators of the act, lending credence that the money being sought by security agencies are usually diverted, while they continued in their old fashion that rarely yields no positive results.
Recall that for years, especially in the past eight years, Kogi state has been in the news for the wrong reason.
All the people who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of their lives, said all forms of attrocities are being committed in Kogi State and linked to people in government or politicians who have policemen attached to them, yet such acts of violence and gangsterism have continued unabated in the state without a single lesson learnt.
“A Local Government Chairman was escorted by his police orderly fully armed during the last general elections bringing out and tearing ballot papers from ballot boxes in a viral video, yet, up till today, neither the chairman nor the orderly who committed such atrocious act was arrested.
“Also, people who cut off tarred road in the state during same election are walking freely in the state up till now,” a respondent stated. (Main report by NAN)
