Agbazuere: How not to be a human rights lawyer (2)

I have heard an omnium gatherum of execrable anecdotes about ACB Agbazuere which I never believed until the day he led police officers to Flo FM to arrest me. The unprofessionalism and turpitude he displayed were unbecoming of a human rights lawyer.

Human rights lawyers fight injustices and take up pro bono cases for people whose rights were violated. But our COS is renowned by the number of persons awaiting trials in Afara prison through petitions from his law firm.

Instead of relief, his name sends a shiver down the spines of vulnerable inmates awaiting trials. There was a fraught of silence when they learned that he was behind my incarceration. Out of concern, one of them shouted in Ngwa dialect, “Chineke meee! Dee, obu petition Owee kpotara gi ngana? Hmm! Ula gi ga ite anya ooh!” (“My God! Brother, if the petition that brought you to Afara is from Owee, you will spend quite some time here ooh!”)

Of course, their apprehension was justifiable considering the number of his victims languishing in Afara prison. The inmates see him as God; a status he relishes. This delusion of grandeur deluded him into believing that he would determine my fate. That probably explained why he gave apostatizing and apologizing to “Papa Ukwu” and some unnamed aggrieved Abia elders, as conditions for regaining my freedom.

The trump-up charges against me (cyber-crime, illegal possession of firearms, inciting violence and threatened behaviour) are bailable. But our human rights lawyer, ACB Agbazuere, even though a private lawyer ineligible to handle criminal cases, would rather pettifog to ensure that they deny me my right to freedom (bail).

He acted mala fide to have me rot in jail. He also warned a lawyer I contracted to steer clear of my matter to avoid incurring the wrath of Abia government, “Papa Ukwu” and some political bigwigs interested in my prosecution until Barrister Ken Ahia (SAN) waded in.

Agbazuere had gotten the hint of my imminent release from his informants at the Federal High Court where Barrister (Anya who was holding brief for Ken Ahia SAN) had gone to apply for my bail. He, through Barrister Ibeleme, quickly filed information indicating that the State has a case against me to prevent the Federal High Court from granting me bail.

While this was ongoing, they had approached a Magistrate Court and obtained a production warrant and amended my charges to include kidnapping to the satisfaction of Agbazuere and his Fido Dido police prosecutor, Chidi Obilor. Except for the intervention of the Inspector-General of Police who chastised the highly compromised Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, Agbazuere and his cohorts would have had their wish. Thanks to Dr Alex Otti.

That was when I understood why his name sends a shiver down the spines of vulnerable inmates awaiting trials and the reason hundreds of innocent Abia youths are languishing in prison for years.

It is not an exaggerated make-believe narrative to demonise an innocent man but a shameful display of tyranny by a supposedly human rights lawyer. Agbazuere is a cat’s paw who placed a premium on quid pro quo instead of professionalism and ethics. That’s the secret of his rapid political ascendancy. Therefore, those who say he deserves his Chief of Staff appointment are not wrong after all.

To be continued