A former High Court Judge in Akwaibom state, Ifiok Ukana has revealed how operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) trailed him for over 2 years after a judgement he delivered in 2017.
Ukana disclosed this last week in Uyo at a valedictory session organized in his honour by the State’s Judiciary. Narrating his ordeal after the judgement in the unnamed case, the former Judge said the past 2 years and half have been that of pain and regret to him.
“Who will believe you that these men are after you?” he queried.
“The last two and a half years for me has been one of great pain and regret.
“I have shared with many of my learned brothers and they know my travails on the bench.
“The SSS was released against me from July 2017 up till this morning. If you come to my neighbourhood you’ll see them there. What are they looking for? What is their mission?
“I sit next to the chief judge, a believer, and a friend. But I regret to say in this moment of trial, he did not come to my aid.
Speaking further the Judge said, “Ask anybody in my church, I don’t belong to the group that fancy long life, particularly in a country like Nigeria.
“In this country, a serving attorney general was killed and nothing happened!
“Let me reveal to you, I had to pay for my casket. I had to because these same men masquerading can kill me anytime.
“If a matter is decided and the principal litigant did not like it, why did he not appeal? Why resort to guerilla tactics and abuse of state authority to intimidate, to harass and cause me sleepless nights?
“A judge cannot be subservient, there is only one oath of allegiance which is to dispense justice without fear or favour, with ill will to none. And if I have done that and somebody sitting somewhere believing he is connected politically and hide under the shadow of rehabilitation into a new caucus and do this to me, then he has failed.
“The rehabilitation is one thing, being fully in control is another thing” he stated.
