Late Chief Jacob Odivwri
I had a bad Wednesday. It took the laconic terse message of my eldest brother, Mr G.A Odivwri, to get the day spoilt. His sms read: “We lost the case”. My body started shaking soon as I read the message. It was the case we had all looked forward to in the family. A case we thought will finally console us and assuage our pains, in a way. It is the case of the prosecution of those suspected to have kidnapped and killed my father, Chief Jacob Odivwri Edjesa, almost five years ago. The details of the case, the investigations, the dialectics of the prosecution process have all given us hope that justice would one day be done.
But last Wednesday, one Justice F.O Ohwo of High Court 2 in Warri smashed our hope on a hard surface legal magic pad, claiming to have not been convinced that the suspects— Sylvester Ochuko Oro and Ochuko Etiemonu, either kidnapped or killed my father.
After my father was abducted on December 16, 2008, we had contacted the Police and State Security operatives immediately. Pronto, they swung into action. The SSS fellow who handled the investigation was particularly deep, critical and analytical in his investigations, and within weeks, several people had been rounded up.
And since then till last Wednesday, the Delta State government had been in the courts, trying to bring the suspects to justice. There were almost 40 court appearances.
In the wake of the abduction, the abductors had contacted us through an MTN line asking for a ransom of N20 million. And that for us to continue negotiation, we should first send them MTN recharge card of N20,000. Pronto we sent the recharge cards, and they called back to confirm receipt, after some hours. They loaded some of the cards and sold some. The SSS arrested all those who bought the cards, as MTN obliged us the information. Some of the buyers in turn identified those who sold the cards to them, to include some of the suspects.
Before then, the suspects had called one of their teachers, who was in a nearby compound to my father’s (in the village) to go and announce to my siblings that my father had been kidnapped. The teacher having taught one of the suspects, clearly knew his voice. He (the teacher) became one of the prosecution witnesses. He had told the court plainly the circumstances of the call and the warts that followed.
For six days, the kidnappers kept us in suspence, as they kept asking for the ten million Naira ransom they had settled for, without allowing us speak to our father. We demanded that we speak to our father as a condition for paying the ransom. But they never budged.
We later found our father’s body at the backyard of one of the suspect’s father’s house, six days after he had been killed.
Soon after the discovery of the body, both suspects fled, one to Abraka, and the other to Jesse, near Sapele. They were arrested.
The autopsy report had shown he was stabbed at the back of his neck. They had to kill him ostensibly because he recognized them. They were neighbourhood boys.
The MTN call log had shown that they owned the lines with which we were contacted. Even when they changed their SIM cards, the IMEI yet showed it is the same phone they were using. They eventually sold the handset, and the buyer was also arrested and confessed that the suspects sold him the handset.
Their voices were recorded during the negotiation. This was proven by experts in the court.
Some of the witnesses testified to the “rough life” of the suspects.
The SSS operative, the police, including the MTN representative all bore witnesses to the case in the court, all seeking to demonstrate that the suspects were behind the kidnap and the murder.
But in all of these, Justice Ohwo says the case lacks merit. He must be a different specie of a doubting Thomas to refuse to believe the evidences tendered before him.
I have heard of the law being an axe. But never in this affrontal manner.
My Lord, I am convinced that this judgement is based on a warped, wonky and weird logic. And suspiciously whimsical. It is not in sync with the proceedings in the court room. What did Justice Ohwo want as proof that he did not get? I cannot reconcile it.
We are crest-fallen with this judgement. I feel my father has been freshly killed all over again. Gosh…, it hurts when you are denied justice.
The judge, not God, has spoken! The ultimate Judge shall give His verdict, which no man can appeal.
Yes, even if the suspects were found guilty and convicted or even killed, it would not bring back our father, who probably could have yet been alive. But it would, in a way, reinforce our confidence in the justice system of this country. Papa, rest on!
Our father did not commit suicide. But the learned Judge has declared that the suspects, even with their bloody hands, are not those who kidnapped or killed Chief Odivwri. So Mr Judge, who did?
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