By Our Reporter
An administrative Judge of the Warri judiciary, Justice Marshal Umukoro, cheated death by the whiskers on Tuesday, in Delta State, when suspected hired killers attempted to snuff his life out of himl. The judge, his orderly and driver however escaped unhurt.
They had been coming from Ughelli, where the judge resides, to resume work in Warri at about 8.00a.m, when a gang of hoodlums, believed to be hired assassins, fired at his official car several times at Okuokoko village, but narrowly missed their target.
According to the Nigerian Tribune which reported the news, the judge was to preside on heaps of cases on Tuesday. He was however held up at a traffic snarl at Okuokoko village and immediately the bandits sighted his car, they rained several shots at the vehicle, but missed their target.
Meanwhile, his driver, Akatugba Ossai, who recounted the incident, said as they approached the traffic jam at Okuokuoko, he sighted some armed youths who wasted no time in opening fire on the judge’s KIA Spotage jeep, saying that in the ensuing confusion, he courageously drove through the traffic hold-up to save his boss’s life. His words: “When I noticed two of the gunmen beside the vehicle, I pushed them aside and came face-to-face with three other members of the gang who fired at the front seat where oga hanged his suit, thinking he was there and the bullets pierced through the front windscreen and shattered the back windscreen.”