Acting Chief Judge of Cross River State, Justice Eyo Ita, yesterday urged all Nigerians above the age of 50 to apologise to the youths of the nation.
Ita made the remark in Calabar during an assessment tour of the vandalised High Court of Cross River State along Mary Slessor Road by suspected hoodlums, under the guise of the ongoing #EndSARS protest.
It would be recalled that between October 23 and 24, there was widespread destruction and looting of public and private property in the state which necessitated the declaration of a 24-hour curfew by Governor Ben Ayade on Friday, October 23.
According to him, the youths are angry and there are things that caused their annoyance.
He noted that the protest was just hijacked by people who vandalised the court, though it was not right but something had already gone wrong with our system.
“I was here earlier on Saturday to see things for myself. It is a pity that it happened but I hope we would learn the lesson that the present situation is showing us because this event did not happen for nothing.
“When I was in school, it was not like this, how can somebody go to school and after 10 years, you cannot get a job; it is for us to look inwards and correct those things, otherwise, I do not know how this situation would end,” he said.
“In terms of money, I cannot quantify the losses here but a lot has been lost; almost all the air conditioners have been lost, we do not even know if the case files have been lost, those are the ones we will not be able to replace.
“I just hope we have not lost case files because it is like losing your history and you know courts are repositories of our history; going forward, I pray God helps us to make the necessary changes so things like these do not happen again.
He added that he had three months from when he was sworn in and would effect the changes he could, hoping that the person that takes over from him would follow what he has set up for the betterment of the judiciary in the state.
Similarly, chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Calabar Chapter, Mr Paul Ebiala, in his remark said that the lawyers in the state were sad, adding that the whole event was a message to the leaders, which should be taken seriously
“The sad part of the whole thing is the criminality that has gone with the protest, apart from that, it is normal, even the lawyers were part of the #EndSARS and police brutality demonstration.
“However, destroying and looting public and private properties cannot be called the EndSARS protest, young people must understand that they will gain nothing by destroying the nation they want to put in place.
“I know some of the vandals who have been arrested would be brought to court, they will still be defended by lawyers, this is simply to ensure that the right sanctions prescribed by the law is what is meted out,” he added.