The
Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has given Justice
Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court seven days to retract his bribery allegation
against Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, or be ready to go
to jail for flouting the Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Act 2000.
Justice
Okoro, who is one of those under investigation by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC,
for corruption, had alleged that Amaechi specifically visited him and asked
that the governorship appeal case of Rivers State be delivered in APC’s favour.
But Amaechi denied the allegation, saying the judge concocted the claim in
order to politicise the issue of his arrest.
However,
the state chapter of the party wondered why Amaechi or anybody attempt to bribe
Justice Okoro for an election upturned by both the Tribunal and the Appeal
Court? The Chairman of the state Chapter of the party, Davis Ibiamu Ikanya, in
a statement berated Justice Okoro over his allegation as contained in his
letter to the National Judicial Council, NJC.
According
to Ikanya, “One does not need a soothsayer to see that Justice Okoro is very
confused and thinks that by mentioning the name of Amaechi in his letter, he
would deceive Nigerians and play down the gravity of his sins and crimes
against Rivers State people and Nigeria as a whole. “If we may ask Justice
Okoro, why should Amaechi or anybody attempt to bribe him for an election
upturned by both the Tribunal and the Appeal Court? An election widely
condemned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the
international community and both local and foreign observers who monitored the
shambolic exercise in the course of which over 200 of our members were
slaughtered like chicken just to install Chief Nyesom Wike of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in power at all cost?” The party further threatened to
invoke the provisions of the Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Act
2000, which makes failure to report bribery or a bribery attempt a crime that
attracts both a fine and a jail term. “For failing to report the fictional
bribery attempt by Amaechi, Justice Okoro has committed an offence that attracts
up to two years imprisonment. We are hereby giving him one week to retract his
worthless and satanic letter and apologise to Amaechi or we may be forced to
set in motion a machinery to invoke the Corrupt Practices And Other Related
Offence Act 2000,” the party said.
No comments:
Post a Comment