As a result of Barrister Inibehe Effiong's continuing arrest at the hands of Justice Ekaette Obot, the chief judge of Akwa Ibom State, activist attorneys from around the nation have written to NBA President Olumide Akpata.
Lawyers working under the banner of Lawyers Arise for Justice bemoaned the fact that the troubled attorney, Inibehe Effiong, who the Akwa Ibom State Chief Justice jailed for one month for contempt of court, was transferred handcuffed from Akwa Ibom's Ikot Ekpene Correctional Center to Uyo Correctional Center on Wednesday, August 11, 2022.
The lawyers, in the letter signed by Tope Temokun, Convener, Lawyers Arise for Justice, lamented that Effiong was forced to sit on the bare floor and had his head and beard shaved, among other degradations visited on him.
The lawyers, in the letter titled ‘Inibehe Effiong: Is The NBA Help less In The Face Of This Impunity?’, maintainedthattheNBAtook a swift step to the applause of all when the matter happened and exhibited enough courage when it stated that the Chief Judge did not follow due process in sending Effiongtoprison.
The lawyers noted that the NBA had observed that Barrister Effiong was neither docked, nor given the opportunity of being heard in violation of his constitutional right to fair hearing.
The group stressed: “This is a clear case of when the court would have the powers to review its order on the ground of a fundamental defect in the proceedings and a breach of the Inibehe’s right to fair hearing.
“In a plethora of cases too numerous to cite, the Supreme Court has dispassionately confirmed the position of the law on this, that a court would set aside its own order given in any proceeding in which there is some fundamental defect.