Now that Naira notes scarcity is fading away gradually, kidnapping is coming back to lime light.
On Monday April 17, gunmen kidnapped the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Okey Wali.
It is happing few days after a former deputy governor was kidnapped in a northern Nigerian state.
Sadly, before he was taken away, two of his staff were killed while three others were injured.
According to a statement from the NBA, the former president of the association, a 64-year-old Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was abducted along the East-West Road in the early hours of Monday.
Precisely, he was in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The current president of the NBA, Yakubu Maikyau, wants the police commissioner in Rivers State and the inspector general of police to “leave no stone unturned as they work towards the safe release of our dear learned friend”.
Maikyau noted that Wali, the 26th NBA president from 2012 to 2014.
“He has served this nation in varying capacities, contributing immensely to the growth of legal practice and in the promotion and entrenchment of the rule of law”.
According to him, the lawyer, who served as his predecessor, as “a known philanthropist who has helped in the development of his community in no small measure”.
It is not the first time the man is being abducted.
In October 2014, he was taken hostage and kept for a few days by unidentified gunmen.
NBA Statement
According to the NBA President’s statement, “the former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Okey Wali, SAN, was reportedly kidnapped in the early hours of yesterday, April 17, 2023.
“His convoy was attacked along East-West Road in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
“Mr Okey Wali, SAN was the 26th President of the NBA and has served this nation in varying capacities.
He has contributing immensely to the growth of legal practice and in the promotion and entrenchment of the rule of law.
“He is a known philanthropist who has helped in the development of his community in no small measure.
“I, therefore, hereby plead with the abductors not to harm Mr Wali, SAN and make a passionate appeal for his release to his family.
“The NBA stands with and assures his family of our full support in this trying period, even as we join in praying for his safe return home.
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“This ugly incident is yet another sad reminder of the weakness in our security system and the failure of successive governments to live up to the Constitutional duty of providing for the welfare and security of all Nigerians.
“We urge the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, to leave no stone unturned as they work towards the safe release of our dear learned friend.”
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