Family, NBA seek justice for slain Abia lawyer

The family of the late staff member of the Abia State Ministry of Justice, Lucky Emeh and the Nigerian Bar Association, Aba Branch, have called on the state police command to investigate those behind the 35-year-old lawyer’s gruesome murder and bring them to book.

The immediate elder brother of the deceased lawyer, Mr Justice Emeh, who spoke exclusively with the According to Metro on Sunday, said Lucky was shot dead in an eatery in the Umuatako area of Aba on Monday, September 2, 2024, by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

The shooting happened less than a year after the burial of his father, the late Chief Sir Okechukwu Emeh, on December 1, 2023.

He told our correspondent that his brother received a telephone call and he directed the caller to meet him at the eatery, adding that instead, the caller came with another person to meet him at the venue just opposite their family compound before they shot him.

He said, “It’s unfortunate that we found ourselves in this situation. It is a colossal loss to our family. If there is any other word more than colossal, I could have used it. The loss is unbreakable. It is a big loss to my family, Abia State and the judiciary. We have made all the necessary reports to the police.

“We are only requesting the authorities to get into action. He was a staff member of the Abia State Ministry of Justice and a prosecutor in the Magistrate Court, Umuikea. We are calling on the government, the judiciary, the police and the Nigerian Bar Association to activate all legal means to bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to book. We want to make sure that justice is served.”

The NBA Aba Branch also condemned the gruesome murder of the lawyer in a statement signed by its Chairman, Mr Charles Nsobundu Onuchukwu and Secretary, Mr Chuks Nwaokoro. It described the attack on the lawyer as an affront to the legal profession and called on the police to bring the suspected perpetrators to book.

The statement which was made available to the According to Metro on Sunday revealed that the deceased had received a call from a person known to him inviting him to a meeting on Monday, September 2 but he declined the invitation.

It added the suspected caller also called him again on the same day in the evening when he responded that he was sitting out in a restaurant close to his house. Shortly, the caller arrived with his gang members, shot the deceased twice on the forehead and made away with his cell phone.

The statement read, “We woke up on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, to hear the ugly and sad news of the gruesome murder of one of our members, Lucky Chinonso Emeh, who worked with the Abia State Ministry of Justice, Umuahia.

“However, preliminary inquiry and investigation from his family when the Executive Committee of the NBA Aba branch led by her Chairman, Charles Nsobundu Onuchukwu, paid the immediate family of the late Emeh a condolence visit revealed that our deceased colleague received a phone call from someone he knew at about 7:45 pm on Monday, September 2, 2024, in the evening requesting him to come to a particular location which the late Emeh declined.

“We were further informed by the elder brother of the deceased, Mr Justice Emeh, that at about 8:00 pm the same Monday evening, the late Emeh went to a restaurant in front of his house to eat. The same person who called him at about 7:45 pm called him again and he told them that he was in a restaurant in front of his house.

“The said caller and his gang came to where he was eating and shot him two times on his forehead. The assailants, after shooting him, took his phone and entered their nearby vehicle that was steaming and zoomed off.”

The NBA stated that attacks on lawyers who were in private and public practices in recent times could no longer be tolerated, noting that their colleague’s life was sniffed off in his prime.

According to them, “This is unacceptable. We therefore condemn this dastardly act and demand that the perpetrators of this heinous crime be brought to book.

“We demand and urge the Commissioner of Police, Abia State Command, to take this case very seriously as lawyers who are lawfully applying their trade have now become endangered species. The gruesome murder of Lucky Chinonso Emeh is a complete affront and assault on members of the NBA Aba Branch and the same is condemned in its entirety.

“The branch will not leave any stone unturned in getting to the root of this dastardly act as well as apprehending these dare-devils in the form of human beings who mindlessly took the life of our colleague in his prime.”