Lawyers demand emergency rule in Anambra State

The umbrella association of Nigerian lawyers has called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare emergency rule in the southeastern state of Anambra, where they allege that law and order has broken down irretrievably. A statement by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), sent to IRIN on Tuesday, said the call was in response to the brutal murder of its local branch chairman, Barnabas Igwe, and his wife, in the violence-prone city of Onitsha, Anambra State, on 1 September. The NBA blames the state governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, of whom Igwe was very critical, for the murders. "As at now, most of the legal practitioners based in Anambra State have been put under siege, living in fear for their lives," NBA president Wole Olanipekun said in the statement. "Anonymous telephone calls are reportedly being received by them [the lawyers] on an hourly basis, threatening to eliminate them for their guts in advising the state government to pay arrears of workers' salaries and govern in accordance with the constitution," he added. Unless the federal government intervened, the situation in Anambra State was soon likely to get out of control soon and threaten the whole of Nigeria, according to the NBA. There has so far been no response to the call from the presidency. Under emergency rule, the governor and the state legislature could be suspended, with President Obasanjo governing the state by decree until he was satisfied that normality had returned. Igwe and his wife were attacked by a group of armed men as they returned from an evening outing. According to witnesses, they were dragged out of their car and dealt several machete blows before being shot. Their assailants deliberately drove over their bodies before fleeing into the night, reports added. The deceased lawyer had been very critical of Mbadinuju over the arrears of several months of salaries owed the state workers, and for operating the anti-crime vigilante outfit known as the Bakassi Boys. Local and international human rights groups have accused the vigilante group of committing more than 1,000 extra-judicial killings since it was set up two years ago. Governor Mbadinuju has denied any involvement in the killing of the Igwes, and has offered to resign if a judicial inquiry established to investigate the killings linked his government to the deaths. The killings added to the climate of violence that has enveloped Nigeria over the last year and in the run-up to general elections scheduled for early 2003. In December 2001, the country's then Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Bola Ige, was killed in his home by as yet unknown assassins.