Hon. Justice Rita Pemu Escapes Kidnap Attempt, Driver Missing

Kidnappers on Sunday abducted Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division, Rita Pemu, around 11am.

The Judge was seized while travelling from Owerri to Benin city along Azia-Orsumoghu-Ihiala Road.

Disclosing this in a statement, the Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association(NBA) in Imo State, Bar, J.I. Ogamba and Secretary, Chinedu Agu, said when they paid His Lordship a visit at 5pm on Monday, it was gathered the kidnappers double-crossed His Lordship’s vehicle at a speed break, ordering her to lie prostrate on the road while pointing guns menacingly on her head.

The statement said Hon. Justice Pemu, who by happenstance was in her Hiace Bus instead of her SUV dressed in a simple, spartan and free-flowing gown, was mistaken by the kidnappers as one of “Oga’s stewards,” as they kept demanding to know in which car their “Oga” was.

While she was marched into a thick forest, one of the kidnappers, according to the statement, was boasting that he would have wasted their Oga if he were there.

“As his Lordship was matched into the bush like a death-destined sheep to the slaughter, gun shots and concomitant cries of anguish pervaded the bush, which heightened her apprehension.

“As the kidnappers backed out for his Lordship to continue the Golgotha walk into the depth of the bush, where perhaps she would face the doomed fate of others, she detoured and took safety elsewhere and was hurried back to Orlu town in disguise from where she found her way into Owerri.”

As at the time of this report, the statement said His Lordship’s official cars, her driver and her personal property inside the car are yet to be found.