By Uthman-Baba Naseer, Minna <\/p>\n
Magistrates in the Service of the Niger State Judiciary now live in perpetual fear of their safety as they board Commercial vehicles to their respective duty posts,our Correspondent findings have revealed.<\/p>\n
The Magistrates, according to our source,board Commercial vehicles along with defendants standing trial in their courts to their various stations of duty thereby risking their safety.<\/p>\n
Successives administration in the state presented a total twenty six peugeot 406 to the Magistrates sometime in 2020 with the promise to complete the remaining part, a promise that was not fulfilled.<\/p>\n
The former governor of Niger State now Senator Abubakar Sani Bello promised to make a bunk purchase of official vehicles to the Magistrates in the service of the state Judiciary but he could not fulfill the promise till the expiration of his tenure in May,29 2023.<\/p>\n
It was gathered that the twenty six of the vehicles were shared among some directors and other senior personnel of the Niger State Judiciary leaving the Magistrates without any.<\/p>\n
It was reliably gathered that their counterparts in Nasarawa,Kogi, Kwara,Plateau, and FCT were given official vehicles like High Courts but only Niger State Magistrates boarded Commercial vehicles along with litigants standing trial in their courts.<\/p>\n
Some time in September last year, a serving Magistrate in Rijau Magisterial Division, Benjamin Zakaria,escaped being killed by armed bandits that barricaded Minna Tegina Highway<\/p>\n
The Magistrate was traveling back to his station in Rijau, after attending a training workshop in Azara Hotel in Minna when the Commercial vehicles he was travelling with ran into the hands of heavily armed men suspected to be bandits.<\/p>\n
He was shot on the leg by the dare devil armed men while other passengers in the same vehicle were kidnapped to the forest.<\/p>\n
Also, some Magistrates were traveling in a Commercial vehicle when they boarded the same bus with two ex-convicts who were previously convicted by one of the Magistrate in her court <\/p>\n
Unknown to the Magistrate, the ex- convict,having recognized the Magistrate,he identified himself to her \u201c that, I have completed serving my jail term look at me and you in the same commercial vehicle. If I want to deal with you now I will just beat you nothing will happen\u201d<\/p>\n
It was gathered that it took the intervention of other passengers in the vehicle to save the Magistrate from being violently assaulted by the ex-convicts<\/p>\n
The Chairman Magistrate Association of Nigeria (MAN) Niger State Chapter Murtala Ibrahim Bala Esq,and the State Public Relation Officer (PRO), Nathaniel Kolo,Esq when contacted for their comment they both declined to comment saying,\u201dyou know that we cannot speak on this issue. Yourself know that we cannot even comment on this matter\u201d<\/p>\n
However,the Chief Judge of Niger State, Justice Halima Ibrahim Abdulmalik has some time during the legal year, pleaded with Governor Umar Mohammed Bago to provide official vehicles to the serving Magistrate in the service of the Judiciary.<\/p>\n
\u201c Your excellence, some of these Magistrates enter the same commercial vehicle along with litigants standing trial in their courts. <\/p>\n
\u201c It makes them vulnerable and risks their lives to danger. For serving Magistrates to board the same commercial vehicles along with those standing trial in their courts or some one that was convicted by the same Magistrate you can see how endangering their lives are.\u201d The Chief Judge told the governor in an emotional laden tune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Uthman-Baba Naseer, Minna Magistrates in the Service of the Niger State Judiciary now live in perpetual fear of their safety as they board Commercial vehicles to their respective duty posts,our Correspondent findings have revealed. The Magistrates, according to our source,board Commercial vehicles along with defendants standing trial in their courts to their various stations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[6457],"class_list":["post-12983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime","tag-violently-assaulted-ex-convicts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12984,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12983\/revisions\/12984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}