IMO STATE LAWYERS AVOID COURT SESSIONS

Due to the murder of a legal practitioner Darlington Odume, Imo State Lawyers has embarked on a three-day shun of court sessions.

Owerri state high court and Owerri Magistrate’s court in Owerri were not in operations on Monday.

It is also the same situation in all the courts across the state.

Odume was last week murdered in front of a supermarket in Orlu town in Orlu Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking to reporters, the lawyers said that all the five branches of the Nigerian Bar Association in the state agreed that the lawyers will boycott court sessions for three days to express their sorrow over the killing of Odume who was called to bar about six years ago.

Apart from the killing of Odume, a former chairman of the Owerri branch of NBA, Ndionyenma Nwankwo, was on February 7, found dead in his office in Owerri, the state capital.

A lawyer, Ephraim Anthony, told our correspondent that the lawyers were saddened by the killing of their colleagues.

He regretted that six months after Nwankwo was murdered in his office, the security operatives had yet to uncover the mystery behind the dastardly act.

He said, “Our former chairman was in February murdered in cold blood in his office. Why we were still mourning that painful and irreplaceable loss, our colleague, Darlington Odume, a very promising lawyer was again killed.

“We are saying enough is enough. Lawyers shouldn’t be seen as enemies. We work for humanity. We should be protected and not killed. We want the security agencies to unravel the circumstances behind these killings and bring the perpetrators to justice.”