One of the seven Supreme court judges arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Services between 7th and 8th October, Inyang Okoro, has alleged in a four page letter that the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, is the one who caused his nightmare.
The Supreme court judge said in his letter dated 17th October 2016 addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, that he strongly believed that Amaechi had a hand in his ordeal because the Supreme Court ruled against the All Progressives Congress’ governorship candidates in Abia, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.
Inyang Okoro added that during the raid on his house in Abuja which started around 9pm on 7th October and ended at about 1am on 8th October by the DSS operatives, the sums of $38,800 and N3.5m were recovered in his residence.
He said the sums of money recovered during the search of his home by “so many heavily armed men” were the balance of his unspent estacode for the past three years.
On the involvement of Amaechi in his ordeals, the Justice of the apex court said both the minister and the APC’s governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State in the 2015 poll, Mr. Umana Umana, made attempts to use him to influence the decision of the Supreme Court on the election cases.
He said both men at different times paid him visits in their bid to influence the apex court’s decisions. He said that during Amaechi’s visit, the former Rivers State governor said President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC wanted him (Okoro) to help in influencing the Supreme Court to deliver judgments in favour of the party.
Amaechi, who reacted to the allegation by the judge in a statement, denied ever approaching the judge for a favourable judgment.
The former governor of Rivers State, communicated this through his media office. He described the allegations as a figment of his imagination and asked the judge to stop deviating from the issues on ground and respond to the corruption allegation levelled against him.
The statement said, “This accusation from Justice Okoro against Amaechi is a figment of his imagination, concocted to obfuscate and politicise the real issues for his arrest and the DSS investigation of allegations of corruption against him.
“The claims by Justice Okoro against Amaechi are blatant lies, bereft of any iota of truth or even logic. Amaechi did not, and has never approached Justice Okoro in respect of the cases Okoro mentioned or any other case.
“This is a cheap attempt, albeit political move to drag the name of Amaechi into something he knows nothing about.
“Justice Okoro should face his issues and leave Amaechi out of it. He will be hearing from our lawyers.”
Justice Okoro also alleged that Umana promised to be paying him “millions of naira” if he (Okoro) cooperated.
He said, “My Lord, I strongly believe that this my travail is not unconnected with the verbal report I made to you on 1st of February, 2016 about the visit to my official residence by H/E Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and now Minister of Transportation.
“In that report, I told you My Lord, that Mr. Amaechi said that the President of Nigeria and the All Progressives Congress mandated him to inform me that they must win their election apppeals in respect of Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State and Abia State at all costs. For Akwa Ibom State, he alleged that he sponsored Mr. Umana Umana, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for that election and that if he lost the Akwa Ibom appeal, he would have lost a fortune.
“Mr. Amaechi also said that he had already visited you and that you had agreed to make me a member of the panel that would hear the appeals. He further told me that Mr. Umana would be paying me millions of naira monthly if I cooperated with them.”
