Ballason
Gloria Mabeiam
It would prove to be the year of rape docket.29-year Musa had raped a 5-year toddler; an adult jeweler had defiled a 3-year old. Esther, was not so lucky, her 9-year body did not survive the strain of the rape by a 65-year neighbor. Furious, Commissioner Haz Iwendi declared a state zero-tolerance on rapists. The crime was becoming something of a state embarrassment which was reverberating across the nation. He and the men of the Kaduna state command rose to the occasion. Somewhere in the Federal Capital Territory was yours sincerely, following the events of the state, my dear state, Kaduna. Mr. Iwendi and his men were heroic but they needed their efforts complemented. So I built my national youth service corps project on a national stakeholder discourse and intervention on rape. The year was 2008.
That was when I met Gamaliel Byang Kore esq. My sister, Georgia was his account officer at Spring Bank and had told him about the project I was embarking upon. Incidentally, the Ministry for Justice, where Mr. Kore was a Director for Public Prosecution, had been having a tough time in court losing more rape cases than nailing the offenders. The laws were mouldy and moribund, they needed a review and Kore was glad to know that my project had done an extensive research and the programme I had in the oven was going to bring together the right stakeholders.
So the day came. The venue was National Women Centre, Abuja. There was the Minister for Information represented by her Personal Assistant; Nowa Okpo esq was ready with her paper on how the family could deal with rape victims. ACP Godwin C. Nwobodo had flown in from Lagos with his well-articulated paper on the challenges of the Police in securing evidence for the offense of rape. Gamaliel Byang Kore Esq,who had driven all the way from Kaduna at his cost and with no prospect for honorarium, got the audience fixated as he enumerated the then problems of prosecution stating that the Criminal Code appeared to be more elaborate in its definitions and posturing on sexually related offences but was not specific on the issue of Rape and that the Penal Code on the other hand was specific in its definition and the ingredients needed for proof but had an evidence thresh hold that was too high for a prosecutor.
That was all we needed to take to market. The outcome of the symposium became fodder for African Women Awareness Trust, lawyers and persons interested in the review of rape laws. We would have loved to gain some perspective from C.P.Haz Iwendi; unfortunately, he passed on early in May, 2008 but his wife Olukemi, received in his stead a post humous award of dogged rape fighter while Daily Trust clinched the Whistle Blower award.
It was a great feat but much more the beginning of a work relationship between me and Mr. Kore. Working with him was like running experiments in a law laboratory. He knew when to approach law as a static Science and when to let it flow as a progressive art. His prowess was well documented in the law reports. For a new wig such as I was, he seemed to be the man to beat in Criminal law.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to work too hard to build a bridge across my far flung private practice and his public service as DPP in the Ministry. He was always willing to listen to my perspective of the law; knowing what seniority in the legal profession is about, that spectacular invitation to the table by an elder of no mean standing than Oga Kore was a privilege I didn’t take lightly. Again, when I began Law on radio, it was not difficult to choose my first guests; Kore and O.O. Olowokure esq turned up on the premier episode of our law radio programme, House of Justice at a time when my lips were still quavering.
But oga had a tortuous journey in the public service. Although he had made his mark in Supreme Court cases as far back as early 2000; he never got his right due. He was widely acclaimed to be eligible for appointment as permanent secretary or for an elevation to the High Court; none of that happened. In 2015, he retired from the ministry, bitter at a structure that was too tainted to honour merit. You could never miss his anger whenever he spoke about his grouse with the system. I was worried that Oga’s anger would work no good except he filed a suit or chose to forgive and move on. He never brought the system to account.
He had a short stint in private legal practice upon retirement.The man was a phenomenon of some sort. In court one Monday morning the following conversation ensued:
Oga: Gloria
Me : Sah.
Oga : Is that the new style?
Me: What sah?
Oga: Wearing eye shadow on one eye and leaving the other?
It turned out he had seen a female lawyer with unfinished make up! Even now, I can’t stop laughing at how oga saw the eye bereft of makeup on a serious Monday morning when we were cracking our heads on the knotty case before us. Weeks later we had an ‘interesting’ breakfast of kosai and doya and boasted about being the new chungai breed that ate kosh and dosh with ketchup! That was vintage oga- truly hilarious in jest and earnest in hard work.
On 23rd of October,2016, the world as we knew it, changed. Gamaliel Byang Kore who had been rewarded by fate as Head, Legal Unit and Prosecution at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja took ill. Few hours later, he was no more. Oga died. He left us. No farewells, no jokes, no discussions, oga just slipped quietly into the shadows.
I would never forget the blare of the siren that heralded the return of his lifeless body back to Kaduna nor the whisper of ‘gawan ya zo’ (the dead body has arrived) by a sympathizer that drove home the reality that time had stopped and memory had begun. Oga had become gawa; a cold, stiff, lifeless body. How? There were no answers.
Oga, your death pierced me. It hit me hard. You were an uncle, a big brother, a colleague who humbly worked and walked with me from my start of the legal profession till your own end. I still remember how eight months ago when you lost your brother to cancer, we compared notes about how cancer ravages its victims and kills them with their minds fully awake. I remember how we agreed that you say to a bereaved ‘yi hankuri’ because there is no other option. Sir, never could we have imagined that you would go so soon.
We wanted EFCC to have a taste of a man bursting at the seams with the knowledge of Criminal law and so that becomes to you a compensation for your sad experience at the Ministry. We had hoped that you would call us some day to the call to bar of your scion and watch you proudly replicate your brilliant legal genes. We had great plans for the Molluma Yakubu-Loma medico-legal centre where you showed much zeal to infuse your knowledge and experience. It is almost as though the light went out when it was billed to shine its brightest.
But what do we mortals know? We are for a lifetime, but God is eternal. He decides who lives and who goes. He does all things according to the counsel of His will and we cannot question Him. Indeed, He gives and takes away.
And so my prayer and hope is that as you walk down the path from earth to heaven and you reach that crystal sea, you will look back and take one last look with the heave of a victor who in spite of danger, toils and snares has breast the tape. I pray that all the bitterness and pain of life and regrets of a lifetime unlived will dissolve in the sonorous song of hallelujah that welcomes one more saint home. Thank you for who you were to us. May the good Lord comfort your wife, H.W. Caroline Sa’adatu Kore, your children Lezly, Shadrach, Meshach and Sheila, your parents, brothers and sisters and all of us who were privileged to know you. The curtain has been drawn, good bye oga, until we meet again.
Gamaliel Byang Kore who had been rewarded by fate as Head, Legal Unit and Prosecution at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja took ill. Few hours later, he was no more. Oga died. He left us. No farewells, no jokes, no discussions, oga just slipped quietly into the shadows
