Ise-Oluwa Ige
17 June 2008
Abuja — AN Abuja High Court sitting at Gudu, yesterday, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
Justice A Talbir issued the order following a request by the police to enable him face a fresh two-count charge of conspiracy and forgery of police documents in respect to the murder of a one-time chairman of Onitsha Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Barnabas Igwe and his pregnant wife, Amaka.
Mbadinuju's alleged accomplice and legal practitioner, one Obodo, was arrested and arraigned before the court yesterday.
Mbadinuju who is facing a two-count charge with him was absent in court yesterday and the police said his whereabouts was unknown.
But the former governor was sighted by Vanguard at the Federal Ministry of Justice where he had gone to complain about the conduct of the police in the entire case.
Mbadinuju protests
Vanguard gathered that at the time the bench warrant was being issued against him, he was in audience with the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN).
Mbadinuju said a law court of competent jurisdiction had already discharged him of the offence of murder preferred against him by the police.
He said politicians who were behind his travails and the entire allegation of murder preferred against him were not happy with his discharge and had to push the police to prefer a fresh charge of conspiracy and forgery against him.
He said they were alleging that he forged the police report on the investigation of the murder of Igwes which formed the basis upon which he was charged to court for murder.
He said the police was unable to justify the allegation and that up till now, it has not been able to produce the original report it issued on the said investigation of the murder of the Igwes.
He said when the issue of forgery came up, the police came to his house to arrest him but that he refused to follow them because he had a court order stopping the police from further harassing him over the issue.
He said if this was a government which is truly based on the rule of law, he saw no reason why anybody must be harassing him in spite the order of the court discharging him.
According to the ex-governor, he knew that the police was not his problem but some powerful politicians in the state who wanted to run him aground politically.
He alleged that they had attempted to kill him in Onitsha prison where he was detained for about three months over the murder of the Igwes before he was released, alleging that the politicians who were after his life sponsored hoodlums into the Onitsha prisons to get him killed but that he escaped by whiskers through the grace of God.
He said the hoodlums set free over 3,000 inmates at the Onitsha prisons and even burnt some of the offices there where they felt he could be hiding at the time but that he survived the plan.
He said now that the court had discharged him of the murder charge, his enemies had now curiously found that he forged the police report which absolved him of the murder.
He added that he was at the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to lodge complaint over the matter.
Denies forgery allegation
Mbadinuju had, about three weeks ago, denied the allegation that he forged the police report on the September 1, 2002 assassination of the ex-Chairman of the Onitsha Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Barnabas Igwe and his pregnant wife, Amaka.
Background of case
The background of the case is that Mbadinuju was said to have conspired with some criminals to arrange the death of the two lawyers.
Late Igwe and his pregnant wife, Amaka were assassinated five years and eight months ago while on a visit to a family friend in Awada Layout, Onitsha.
According to reports, the former NBA boss (Igwe) and his wife were shot several times by gunmen in their private car.
After several gun-shots, the assassins allegedly moved closer to the dying couple and inflicted several machete cuts on them before using a vehicle to run over their bodies again and again to ensure that they did not survive the attack.
The assassination, it was alleged, followed several death-threat telephone calls received by the couple over a 21-day ultimatum issued the Mbadinuju-led Anambra State government by the Onitsha branch of the NBA led by the late Igwe on salary arrears owed civil servants.
Soon after the death of the couple, several people accused Chief Mbadinuju of masterminding the killing even though he was away to Houston-Texas at the time the incident occurred.
The former state governor denied any involvement in the matter, waived his constitutional immunity and submitted himself to the police for interrogation immediately he came back into the country.
The police report which emanated from the investigation absolved the ex-governor of having any hand in the brutal killing of the two lawyers.
The report which was shielded from the public was used to prosecute the ex-governor before an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court which sat in Jabi, Onitsha Magistrate court and a high court in Anambra and was discharged and acquitted.
But years after the police had issued the report and used same to prosecute the ex-governor for murder, it recently alleged that Mbadinuju forged its report on the 2003 murder of Igwe.
Aggrieved by the allegation, Mbadinuju fired a letter to the Inspector-General of Police to protest the conduct of his men.
In the open letter to the Inspector-General of Police , Mr. Mike Okiro, Mbadinuju said that the allegation was a ruse and an attempt to circumvent the judgment of court which exonerated him from alleged murder of the Igwes.
In the letter dated May 22, a copy of which was made available to newsmen , Mbadinuju said that, it was ridiculous for the Police to claim that a report it issued in 2003, was doctored, five years after its existence.
The former governor said that the Police had relied on the same report to prosecute him in different law courts since 2005.
"If they claimed that the report was forged, why have they not made available the genuine report from 2003 till date."
The document, he said, was used to prosecute him in Jabi Magistrate Court, Abuja and Onitsha Magistrate Court respectively in 1995 as well as in Anambra State High Court.
On February 21, Mbadinuju said the High Court of Onitsha reached a decision that there was no fact and evidence linking him with the murder of the Igwes.
" The Court presided over by Justice D.O.C Amaechina discharged and acquitted me of any involvement or complicity on the murder of Igwe," he said.
He contended that " when a court of competent jurisdiction has taken a decision in a case, it is incumbent upon all parties to obey the court order.
"hat is the essence of due process and rule of law. Rather than do this, the Police wanted to defeat the judgment of the High Court which exonerated me from the murder allegation.
"The Police were represented in all the courts, why is it that it is after I have been cleared that they are now saying that their report was forged," he said.
Mbadinuju reiterated his innocence of the murder of the lawyer and his wife.
"I was in Houston Texas the night they were killed. I had left Nigeria a week before they were killed.
"When I came back, I surrendered myself to the Police for investigation and they came to the conclusion that because I was away, I could not have killed anybody.
"Yet, I have been jailed, humiliated on the case that I know nothing about before I was finally cleared by the law court," he said.
He claimed that the new dimension of forgery introduced by the Police was an attempt to further tarnish his image.
He urged the Police boss to use his office to stop his men from hounding him over the matter and to respect the order of the court and the rule of law.
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