Kidnappers attack Akwa Ibom judge after death sentence

A judge of the Akwa Ibom State High Court, Justice Okon Okon, escaped death on Tuesday as some convicts attacked him on the court premises in Uyo for sentencing them to death.

It was learnt that as soon as the presiding judge pronounced the death sentence on the kidnappers, the convicts started to abuse him. They also threatened to kill the Akwa Ibom State Government’s prosecution team.

The criminals later went berserk, destroying the window of the courtroom and causing pandemonium along Ikot Ekpene Road, where the court is located.

A source said, “The situation became messy, as litigants and lawyers in other courts ran helter-skelter for dear lives.

“For about an hour, the kidnappers refused to leave the courtroom. It took the intervention of a combined team of soldiers and policemen to take the convicts to a waiting prison vehicle.”

The names of the convicts were given as Bernard Ajomaya, Christian Naya, Daniel West and Shedrach Dala.

They were accused of kidnapping a medical expert in Uyo, Dr Usen Bassey, on May 19, 2015, and demanding N10m ransom.

They were later arrested with part of their loot, the passport and financial documents belonging to the doctor.