“Never forget that freedom is not something that is voluntarily given by the oppressed” -Martin Luther King Jnr
Like all mortals that seek equal rights, equitable justice and egalitarian society, Barrister John Ogbaji Omligbe (Esq) came, saw for himself the parody and vagaries in the body of the legal justice system in the nation and he has vowed to conquer the odds ingrained in the system without fail.
Omligbe is a young lawyer of 33 years of age, but what many in the cauldron of the law profession with advanced age, experiences and higher degrees beside them would not be able to offer, the maverick, soft spoken, diminutive wizkid has betrayed his age with fire of experiences, intelligence and scholarship to deliver whole/razor sharp for free within the milieu, parameter and grandeur of the law profession.
All these marked showmanship, artistry and stunning professionalism are built in his strong will, enduring strength, and iron-cast determination to dare what others are afraid and to tread where other’s mindsets are overridden by the work of the flesh, blood and the devil.
As a human rights lawyer in private practice, at different fora, he had deployed his legal toolbox, and intellectual machinery to address the unnecessary miscarriage of justice in the society.
On October 27, 2017, he started a burgeoning free legal service (pro-bono) and assisted three inmates regain their freedom from custody. They were ostensibly charged with armed robbery and put on awaiting trial for two years without legal opinion or representation from the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Cross River State Ministry of Justice.
Again, in 2018, he exhibited some stunning performances to his credit and building plum feathers for his future epic capstone as a free legal advocate; he assisted over 30 inmates to regain their exclusive freedom from the dark, stench and rabid prison custody many of whom were charged and unlawfully detained with armed robbery, rape, murder and other sundry issues in both the magisteriate court and high court.
Given his intellectual acumen and industry, by 2019 he displayed a rare, master class of stroke of genius filing 10 human rights suits being motion on notice and eight out of the 10 human rights applications scaled through legal proceedings/trials whose files were abandoned by prosecutors hence used his legal stronghold to letting prisoners out of the dark and sordid world of prison, the so-called home of the forgotten.
In more interesting dramatic display, by the dawn of May 2020, he used the legal instrument(s) to assist the release of 27 inmates after joining as a member of the group of Human Rights Watch and Youth Empowerment Foundation, a platform Barrister Omligbe is currently using to free/advocate for indigent inmates in custody.
On May 7, 2020, upon the declaration of prison decongestion by the Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade, on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic, he was part of the vanguard on a decongestion visit to Calabar Custodial Centre of Nigerian Correctional Services with the urbane and erudite Acting Chief Judge of Cross River State, Justice Maurice Eneji, and freeing prisoners under his banner out of the freed prisoners of the day.
Barrister Omligbe, on his views relating to the decongestion of prisons across the country, opined that the government across board has a lot to do in terms of delayed litigation of cases laying in the recess of cupboards of magistrates/law purveyors and insisted that: “Some inmates in Calabar Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Services have not gone to court for two years or more and some, their files cannot be traced”. He argued that, the “Calabar Prison is still over crowded, as the maximum capacity of Calabar Custodial Center is 450 inmates, but are presently housing 524 inmates as at June 2, 2020″. He insisted that the government must address the lacuna.
Given his pedigree as a legal forerunner, harbinger, hope giver and better justice advocate/voice of conscience for the unlawful detainees/prisoners of conscience, Omligbe is vowing emphatically that he would follow the footsteps of the late legal icon, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, and that of Chief Femi Falana who is still in the mainstream of defining a true legal justice system for Nigeria.
Therefore the time has come for the society at large, NGOs and the government of the day to support this leading voice/torchbearer for prisons decongestion and reforms as earlier advanced by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Barrister Omligbe is a human rights lawyer and hails from Ebo, an agrarian community in Yala local government area of Cross River state and studied law at the University of Calabar, Cross River state and graduated by 2015, before proceeding to Nigerian Law School, Kano Campus and called to Bar in 2016. He is and now in professional legal practice in Calabar.
Allow-Gold writes from the University of Calabar, Cross River state via [email protected]
