Crusade For Justice, a Non Governmental Organization/Human Right Advocacy group has stepped into the Anambra ritual murder imbroglio. This as a result of the alleged attempt by the suspect,Ifeanyi Okpoko to influence the case in his favour.
Speaking in an interview with irukkanews, the President/ Founder of the organization, Barr. Richard Nwankwo said that they decided to step into the case to ensure that justice is done. According to him, for the past 15 years, Crusade For Justice has being taking briefs from the poor and oppressed Nigerians and getting justice for them. He said he was disturbed by the picture of the deceased, Chidera Ezeanya, where he was tied on a crane and left to die, adding that even in a war situation, whoever did that deserve to be punished.
According to him, the role crusade for justice is going to play in the case is to ensure that both the accused and the complainant are given the liberty to exhaust their complains and defense without external influence and for the judge to decide the matter base on the evidence put before him.
“As a human right advocacy group, what we hate is miscarriage of justice.We ensure that the innocent does not get punished and that the guilty does not go scot-free,no matter how rich or powerful he is in the society. I have patiently listened to the complaints of the family of Chidera Ezeanya and I know that we have the machinery to get to the root of the matter. We will do our best to ensure that the right thing would be done. It is really an unfortunate case,a case of two people from the same kindred.” He said
The human right lawyer said that people should try not to be taking the law into their hand,no matter the amount of provocation. According to him, it is only the state that has the right to take somebody’s life, after court of competent jurisdiction has found such a person guilty and all the convicted right of appeal exhausted. He said it is because of this that the National Assembly want to pass a law against jungle justice. Nwankwo also told irukkanews that as part of their human right advocacy,they do visit prisons to fight for the release of prisoners who were unlawfully jailed or awaiting trials who have spent the number of years hey would have been sentenced,assuming they were convicted.
His words,”We have visited Ikoyi and Enugu prisons several times to fight for the release of unlawfully detained inmates or people who are being denied justice and fair hearing.We also do some charity work. Sometime ago, we visited So-Said Charity Home, Okota, Lagos and donated some food items and other things to the people there”.
