John Inyang Okoro

Justice Inyang Okoro is currently trending in Nigeria's 'twittersphere' due to an explicit letter written by him to the Chief Justice of the federation explaining the source of the money found in his house by the operatives of the secret police and he also exposed an epic plot by Rotimi Amaechi, President Buhari and the All progressives congress to bribe him.  

You can be rest assured that twitter is buzzing and the honorable justice can now boast of many fans and Voltrons. My only wonder is why he has just come out now to defend himself. 

THE MONEY

Justice Okoro listed an Ipad, 3 phones,  $38,000 and N3. 5 million among the items taken away by the DSS from his home.  Some enraged individuals have questioned why the revered judge was whisked away because of just a paltry sum and Mr Okoro explained the dollars as the residue of estacodes accrued to him over the last three years on the bench. He had travel and medical allowances and was certain he didn't exhaust more than $5000 over three travels abroad.  Money from an international conference attended was not even part of the money found in his house.  I'm not sure he quite explained the source of the naira. 

From the tone of the judge's letter, it appears just about normal and right for a judge to have millions of naira and a few thousands of dollars in his bedroom for perhaps emergency purposes like purchasing diesel and ordering for pizza. It sounds like wisdom for people to stockpile dollars saved over three years or more from travels under their mattresses or in their fireproof safes instead of in our weak and distressed banks. 

His explanation has appealed to many individuals but I can only imagine if those who understand have relative amounts of cash in their homes on Friday nights and are able to sleep.  

THE ACCUSATION

Mr Okoro explained to the CJF that he was certain that his encounter with the DSS was related to his refusal to be bribed by Rotimi Amaechi. He reminded the CJF of a 'verbal' report he made to him after the minister of transport visited him in his home on Monday,  the 1st of February 2016.

According to Okoro, Amaechi was there on behalf of the president and APC to get him involved in a plot to sway the supreme court electoral appeals of Rivers, AkwaIbom  and Abia states in favor of the APC. He was promised an unspecified sum monthly to the tune of millions.  He claimed Amaechi was desperate not to lose out on the huge investments he had made in the APC candidate in AkwaIbom Mr Umana and so he needed the Justice to be on the panel an arrangement which Amaechi said the CJF was already aware of.  Umana was supposed to be the middle man for settling the transactions.

Mr Okoro thereafter reminded the CJF of another undocumented report he made to him about a prior visit by Mr Umana and a certain 'pastor' to him before Amaechi's visit.  He claimed Umana wanted to meet and settle the judges who would sit on the case a proposal that was "intercepted" [sic] by the pastor because that move wasn't in their original game plan.  Okoro was left out by the CJF based on these 'verbal' reports and the APC subsequently lost the appeals. 

RIVERS APPEAL

The tussle in Rivers was between PDP's Nyesom Wike and APC's Dakuku Peterside as it was disputed if an election actually took place in Rivers state in April 2015. The supreme court upheld Wike's election victory on January 27, 2016 so I wonder why Amaechi was at a Judge's house on February 1st 2016 which was a Monday to sway the decision in his party's favor.

AKWAIBOM APPEAL

This case was between PDP's Udom Emmanuel  and APC's Umana Umana. Mr Umana wanted an annulment even though the election results available showed the PDP man in the lead.  The appeal court granted Umana's wish on December 31st 2015 but by Wednesday the 3rd of February  2016, Udom was declared winner. If Umana was never going to be declared governor in the stead of Udom, why on earth was he prepared to spend and be spent for what would at best be a rerun verdict assuming Udom lost his case? What would have been President Buhari's gain if he had succeeded in overturning elections in regions where he's chronically despised? 

ABIA APPEAL

The contenders here were Okezie Ikpeazu of the PDP and Alex Otti.  In this case,  the court of appeal removed Ikpeazu and declared Otti the winner on the 31st of December 2015 but the supreme court reversed this on the 3rd of February 2016. What exactly was president Buhari's interest in Abia that he had to send Amaechi to alert the judge to take a bribe and turn the case?  Alex Otti did not even run on the platform of the APC but as a candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA. Was Okoro confused by the 'AP' common to both APC and APGA? Should we assume that Mr Alex Otti was expected to decamp to the most unpopular party in the Southeast if his victory had stood? 

I am afraid that this Lambtale from the judge  doesn't quite add up on many levels.  The money and the February first visit defies logic and how a supreme court judge has managed to hing his defence on verbal communication with the CJF and with only two of the accused as witnesses is unbelievable. I truly don't know how or when judges to seat at panels are chosen but is it possible that the CJF is indicted in this matter based on the two verbal reports he allegedly got fed by Okoro and his move to exclude Okoro from the panel which decided the elections without disclosing anything to anybody?

The entire judiciary system seems to me like 'Fuji house of commotion.' It's high time our lawyers and judges got their acts together and for the people to stay focused. Distractions and blackmail abounds everywhere; some equations aren't getting balanced.