A senior law professor, Prof. Olugbenga Oke-Samuel, has issued a public appeal for urgent intervention following the abduction of Dare Isaac Ajewole, a newly-called Nigerian lawyer who was kidnapped on his way from the Call to Bar ceremony.
Ajewole, who hails from Ekiti State, was reportedly seized by gunmen around the Kabba axis of Kogi State, shortly after fulfilling his long-awaited dream of being called to the Nigerian Bar. According to Prof. Oke-Samuel, the news of the kidnapping has left the academic community deeply distressed.
Prof. Oke-Samuel, who taught Ajewole at the Faculty of Law, Adekunle Ajasin University, described the young lawyer as a determined and hardworking student who battled poverty throughout his academic journey. He said Ajewole struggled for years to complete his LLB programme due to financial hardship and faced similar challenges at the Nigerian Law School before finally being called to the Bar only days ago.
“It was heartbreaking to learn that this struggling young man, who fought so hard to rise above poverty, was kidnapped immediately after the Call to Bar ceremony,” he said. “I know his family very well, and they cannot raise ransom money. They are simply not in a position to save him on their own.”
He noted that Ajewole’s last Facebook post before the incident read ‘God bless Nigeria’, stressing that the nation must not fail him now.
The professor called on the Ekiti State Government under Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), the Nigerian Bar Association, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, political leaders, humanitarian organisations, and public-spirited Nigerians to urgently support efforts to secure Ajewole’s release.
“Let us rise for Dare Isaac Ajewole in this moment of distress,” he pleaded. “This is a young Nigerian who has endured so much hardship to build a future. We must not abandon him now.”