Justice Ebiyerin Omukoro, a serving judge of the Bayelsa State High Court who was kidnapped and held captive for 12 days, is now free.  

After returning from a vacation to Warri, Delta State, Justice Omukoro was abducted on the evening of Saturday, June 21, 2025, at Kilimanjaro Eatery, across from Ekeki Park.  

Even though he was freed on Thursday, officials and the Nigerian Bar Association, or NBA, have not yet released a formal statement, thus more information about the terms of his release is still unclear as of the time this item was filed.  

A few days prior to his release, the NBA's Yenagoa Branch revealed that security forces had made headway in locating Justice Omukoro's kidnappers using "digital footprints."

But during that time, there had been no direct communication from the abductors.  According to reports, masked gunmen abducted the judge from Kilimanjaro Eatery in Yenagoa, which is close to a local police station. 

According to reports, onlookers thought the incident was a security operation.  

The NBA responded by calling for a court boycott in Bayelsa State, calling the kidnapping an assault on the legal system, expressing worries about the safety of judges, and urging authorities to take immediate action.

Source