By Newsie:-
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief Mike Ozekhome has explained his reasons for writing to the Speaker of the House of Rep, Femi Gbajabiamila on behalf of his client, the family of a deceased Newspaper vendor, Ifeanyi Okereke, who was killed by the Speaker’s security aide, demanding a 500 million naira compensation.
Speaking with THE WHISTLER on Friday, he said he was called upon to enforce the constitutional rights of his clients – the family members who had approached him concerning the matter, and that’s what he is doing.
It would be recalled that the wife of the deceased, Josephine, was not happy with the demand made by her late husband’s family and had publicly dissociated herself from their demand at a press conference in Abuja, saying that she was not consulted before the decision was taken.
“I was in my house when, within 10 minutes, my father-in-law came from Abia, he went out along with his other son and the next day I heard that my husband’s people are demanding N500 million as compensation.
“I was shocked and asked how will they be doing that and how will the speaker help the children again with such demand. All I want now is that the person that killed my husband to face justice,” she had said on Thursday.
Ozekhome SAN, on his part, said that the letter he wrote to the Speaker was to seek compensation for the deceased vendor’s wife, children, and the rest of the family.
But, he also added that he is not aware of any internal problem among the family members and that they should resolve it by themselves, not him.
In his words: “If they have their internal problem, I am a lawyer; that is not for me to solve for them. It’s not something I will even comment on… I’m not a member of their family.
“If a father comes to brief you as a lawyer, the father is there, his son, the younger brother (to the deceased) who was physically present with him was also there when this thing happen and both of them write a letter; they even came with about six newspaper vendors and they signed the letter, that they want me to be the family lawyer.
“These people were not acting for the father and son alone, if you look at my letter on Speaker Gbajabiamila, it was so respectful and I praised him for what he has already done by even going to see the wife…which is very uncommon with public officers.
“I said but the family will want to be taken care of, we mentioned the father the aged parent, we mentioned the wife and the two small children; so the father and son were not even acting for themselves alone, they were even more concerned with the wife and two small children.
“So if they have their own internal problem, that is their own issue. I cannot be party to it,” he said.
Recall that the Speaker had personally visited the deceased’s wife and three-week-old baby at their residence on Sunday, promising to take care of her family.
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