A suspended lecturer in the University of Calabar (Unical) Bar Joseph Odok has petitioned the Cross River State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade over the attitude of some of his appointees.
In a petition made available to DAILY POST, Barr Odok alleged that the Attorney General, Mr Joe Abang had refused to honour invitation extended to him by the Police.
He said the Attorney General instructed staff of the Cross River State Ministry of Justice to refuse the letter of invitation.
He told the Governor that rather than answer to the police invitation in Abuja, the AG approached Cross River Police Command with frivolous allegations.
“He wrote to the Police seeking my immediate arrest. I think the Attorney General of Cross River State should apply the law and always act as an intelligent law officer rather than spreading falsehood against my person
“Sir, as a custodian of law in Cross River State, the Attorney General ought to be a respecter of the law. Sir, after being called by the Police, he began to hoodwink the law to protect himself and his brother and the principal suspect, Mr Kris Abang from appearing before the Criminal and intelligence Department, Nigerian Police Headquarters Abuja.
“Sir, rather than attending to the invitation by the Nigerian Police, your appointee rather sought to invite me to Cross River State Police Command on frivolous allegations of inciting the public against the Cross River State Government.
“He said that I falsely accused your government of infiltrating your cabinet with cultists and miscreants.
“More so, the increasing cult crisis, inter communal crisis, assassinations, kidnapping, extra judicial killings, proliferation of arms, and related crisis in the state and your complacent attitude in the face of these security lapses strongly justify some of these suspicion in your Government.
“His Excellency, your government built on the politics with ethics, must not continually be silent despite increasing attempt by the agents of your administration to compromise a clear case of attempted murder on me.
“Sir, your continued silence (and the attempt of your top political appointees inclusive of the office of the Attorney General to compromise a clear case of attempted murder) seems to create a bad name for your government that was defined on principles of politics with ethics.
“Sir, Your silence in the obvious injustices and collaboration of top appointees of your government in the case of an assassination attack on me creates an impression that your government may have directly instructed your agents to kill me because of my criticism of your policies.
“Your Excellency, this is but a surreptitious ploy to dismiss the allegations against the Attorney General of Cross River State and top government appointees as a ‘façade’, politically motivated and founded in baseless falsehood deliberately contrived and fabricated in a bid to frustrate the attainment of justice,”, he claimed in the petition.
When DAILY POST contacted the Cross River State Attorney General, Mr Joe Abang on phone on Thursday, he stated that, “I don’t really know who this Joseph Odok is; there must be standard, why do we have administration of criminal justice act, the Office of the Attorney General is No 1 law officer of the State.
Consequently, the Attorney General said he had brought the matter before the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“I have brought this matter before the Chief Justice of Nigeria; I provided all the papers to him. There is so much impunity in the system, you can’t do that, we are making a presentation to the Senate”, he said.
The Attorney General disclosed that Odok maligned the State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade on social media including Facebook,
“Because he maligned my Governor on pages of Facebook, I have a right by the cyber crime Act to look for him.
“He said he knows where the kidnappers and the armed robbers terrorizing Calabar are, as the No 1 law officer of the State, what does the Constitution require me to do? The law is very clear, the cyber Act is there, if you decided to call Buhari names on the social media without justifying it, the Inspector General (IG) of Police has the right to invite you.
“The Commissioner of Police will want to know those people that he claimed that the Governor is aligning with to commit these criminal acts of kidnapping and the rest, we want to know where the people are, that is why the Commissioner of Police was looking for him”, he added.
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