Akwa Ibom Rights Lawyer Freed, Vows To Fight On

Inibehe Effiong a human rights lawyer who was charged for contempt of court has come out of the the Uyo Correctional Centre.

Inibehe came out one month after he was sent to prison by the Akwa Ibom Chief Judge, Ekaette Obot, for contempt of court.

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He was given a heroic welcome by a team of supporters as he left the facility.

The lawyer, who posted a video on his Facebook, Friday morning, captioned it “History will vindicate the just.”

Recall that Inibehe was sentenced to prison on July 27th.

He served the first two weeks of his 30 days sentence at the Ikot Ekpene Custodial Center of the Nigeria Correctional Service.

He was later transferred to Uyo Custodial Centre to serve the remaining days.

Effiong was reportedly abused by prison officials who scraped his hair and beard.

As seen on Friday, the lawyer’s beard had been shaved.

“I am back, stronger and more determined to confront the forces of oppression and to continue to speak nothing but the hard truth to the faces of the oppressors of our people. I feel sorry for those who thought they can break my spirit by incarcerating me,” he added in another post.

His incarceration had since been met with wide criticisms as fellow lawyers, and activists among others, condemned what they described as failure of the Judge to give Inibehe a fair hearing or to defend himself.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General of the state, Uko Udom, had said that the judge had the power to decide contempt.

Udom stated this on Tuesday at the Annual General Meeting of Nigerian Bar Association, in Lagos.

Udom said, “I was somebody who was trained in the old school, I am a very conservative lawyer and have no apology for that. We were told that we do not talk back to the judge. If a judge says your conduct or your action or your words are contemptuous to the court what you do as a lawyer is to apologise and then explain to the court that it was never your intention to be contemptuous.”

Inibehe was defending Leo Ekpenyong in a case of libel said to have been instituted against his client by Governor Udom Emmanuel of the state.

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