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| Justice John Inyang Okoro |
"The fight for justice against
corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be. It exacts a toll
on our self, our families, our friends, and especially our children. In the
end, I believe, as in my case, the price we pay is well worth holding on to our
dignity". Frank Serpico
By Kelvin
Adegbenga
My attention has been brought to a
letter from Supreme Court Justice John Inyang Okoro accusing Rt. Hon. Rotimi
Amaechi of trying to bribe him and Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The allegations is not just baseless
but another means by Justice John Inyang Okoro, to bring down the persons of
President Buhari, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi and Umana O. Umana by a drowning man.
First of all, he is not the Chief
Justice of Nigeria to dismiss the election case before the Supreme Court; even
though the Chief Justice of Nigeria does not have such power.
Secondly, he is not the only Justice
to give judgement over election cases; his decision even if is the Chairman of
the panel can’t stand against other Justices.
As an experienced Justice, what
stopped him from writing officially to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the
Nigeria Judicial Council to substantiate his allegations?
Justice John Okoro is just like a
bull in a China shop; ready to destroy anything without thinking of the
consequences.
I challenge Justice John Inyang Okoro
to substantiate his allegations with concrete evidences just as the Department
of State Service has substantiated their own evidences against him.
It is not enough to mention Rt. Hon.
Rotimi Amaechi and Umana O. Umana, but we need concrete evidences to take him
serious.
Justice John Inyang Okoro should
rather clear himself of all the evidences brought against him by the Department
of State Security rather than hanging his predicament on Rt. Hon. Rotimi
Amaechi and Umana O. Umana.
Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi has been
performing excellently in this government and the records are there.
As at today, there is no single
corruption case against Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi. Even the one engineered by the
Rivers State Governor couldn't stand at the Law Court because it was biased and
baseless.
For those that didn't know, Rt. Hon.
Rotimi Amaechi exposed the corruption of the past administration under Goodluck
Jonathan.
In his words: “I heard Mrs
Okonjo-Iweala say that in the past administration, Governors were unwilling to
save; she is 30 percent correct and 70 percent incorrect,” he said.
“In 2009, we had an economic crisis
so President Yar’adua put $1billion in the economy so no one felt the crisis. I
can’t remember what was left in that account, the excess crude account.
“During Goodluck Jonathan, every
month when the Governors went for the Economic Council meeting, the amount in
the account kept dropping. If we asked about what happened to the money, the
response we got was that the President approved for it to be spent.
“So we said can we please share this
money because the rate at which it was going, the President would have
continually approved $1billion to spend and we won’t know what we are spending
for and they won’t give us an account.
“So we told the Vice President and
the Minister for Finance that there was a need for us to share part of this
money and we began to agitate. They now agreed to share part of the money and
they did. In the first six months of Goodluck Jonathan, oil subsidy increased.
Governors started complaining and then we had a meeting in the office of the
President’s wife.
“At the meeting, we asked for
assurance that the Presidency would no longer collect for oil subsidy and he
promised. It is not right for Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to say Governors were not
willing to save; Governors were willing to save but we insisted on sharing the
money when we saw that the money was not properly managed.”
If he other Governors then has joined
him, we won't be going through the recession Nigeria is experiencing today.
Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi is a man of
dignity and integrity, no amount of propaganda will deterred him from
implementing the Change Agenda of this administration.
On a final note, I challenge Justice
John Inyang Okoro to substantiate his allegations with concrete evidences or
tender an unreserved apologies to Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi and Umana O Umana.
Kelvin Adegbenga writes from Port
Harcourt. kelvinadegbenga@yahoo.com
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