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.
