U.S. Army veteran urges Gov. Soludo to address alleged threats, justice obstruction

U.S. Army veteran urges Gov. Soludo to address alleged threats, justice obstruction

Mr Bonaventure Ezekwenna, Nigerian-American U.S. Army veteran, has urged Gov. Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra to address alleged death threats, extortion by state prosecutors and interference in ongoing court cases.

Ezekwenna who made the call at a news conference on Monday in Awka, said his legal team had submitted a formal petition to the Governor’s office, seeking immediate action.

He claims he survived multiple assassination attempts linked to suspects in two criminal cases he is pursuing.

According to him, the cases involve serious charges such as attempted abduction, malicious damage and threats to life, all supported by investigation reports from the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID).

“One of such incident reportedly occurred on March 19, when gunshots were fired during a court session at the High Court, Oba Division, forcing the judge to move proceedings for safety.

“The cases have allegedly been stalled for over a year,” he said.

Ezekwenna also accuses two prosecutors in the state Ministry of Justice, who were tasked with handling his criminal complaints, of extortion and professional misconduct.

“The prosecutors requested and accepted financial mobilisation from me but has made no tangible progress on the cases in over seven months.

“I wrote a petition to the Attorney-General, Prof. Chika Ifemeje, about the conduct of the prosecutors but she dismissed my concerns and advised me to ‘Apply for a fiat’.

“The delay in prosecuting the cases has emboldened the lead suspect, who continues to issue threats to me and my legal team,”he said.

Ezekwenna called on Gov. Soludo to order an independent review of the handling of the cases by the Attorney-General’s office.

“The Governor should direct the immediate prosecution of the suspects based on police investigations and FCID reports.

“He should discipline and sanction the erring state prosecutors allegedly involved in misconduct, and provide security for me, my family and my legal team,” he said.

Also speaking, Mr Jude Obiora, counsel to Ezekwenna, alleged his client had suffered threats, intimidation, extortion and harassment; enabled by officials entrusted with prosecuting crime in the state.

“Failure to act may turn state prosecutors into enablers rather than defenders of justice,” Obiora warned.

Responding to the allegations, Attorney-General Prof. Chika Ifemeje stated that she had intervened in the matter by reprimanding Ezekwenna for attempting to bribe state prosecutors.

She added that she had assigned a new prosecuting counsel to handle the cases, but Ezekwenna allegedly continued to clash with the new counsel.

“If he cannot work with our prosecutors, he should write to the Governor who appointed me, rather than going about maligning my image,” Ifemeje said

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Chioma Ndukwu

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