When I read the story by The Trent, an online media, narrating an account, which according to the online media transpired at a meeting between the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Director General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) and the President, over the arrest of some judges alleged to have been involved in corrupt practices, I shrugged in disbelief and hopelessness for this great country. That the Chief Justice could make such irrational cover is not just unbecoming, but also shameful.
The insidious and invidious blackmail from the CJN is not just an afterthought and a diversionary plot orchestrated by, as it were, a shameless father attempting to defend his rogue son but it also smacks of complicity. Mr CJN, please here are some questions begging for your answer:
1. Assuming, as the CJN was quoted to have alluded that Rotimi Amaechi tried to bribe the judges but they refuse...., how then did these Judges become in possession of such huge and large sums of money recovered by the DSS?
2. Does the money in their possession suggest a case of "the highest bidder wins", in which case the Peoples Democratic Party-PDP (Governors of Rivers and Akwa Ibom States) paid higher, and therefore APC was turned down; or was it that the Justices took money from the All Progressive Congress Rotimi Amaechi before they refuse his request? How did the money fly into their possession? What and who is the source of the money?
3. Mr CJN, when Rotimi Amaechi attempted to subvert the course of justice as you now claim by approaching you/your justices, what did you do as the "incorruptible" CJN that you now pose to be? Could you not have reported him to Mr. President or the Graft Agencies?
4. Was it in your office that Mr. Amaechi met with you and your brother Justices? If no, as a judge who knew that Rotimi Amaechi and his party were interested in a matter before you, how come you and your brother Justice present yourselves before him in the first instance for such discussion? Wasn't it so you could "favour him" and subvert justice against Mr. Wike? If your allegation is true, was it not obvious to you and your brother Justices that should a litigant come to to you when he has a pending matter before you, it would be to seek for favour? yet you opted to me with him? Perhaps to access what he could offer?
5. Mr. CJN, you didn't tell Nigerians that Mr. Governor Wike visited you and how many times he did during the period the case was before you? I ask Mr. CJN, how many times did Mr. Wike visit you and what was the purpose?
6. Mr CNJ, while Wike V Peterside was pending before the Supreme Court, did Mr. Nyesom Wike not meet with you privately and when APC bust the bobble, your office and Mr Wike issue two contradictory statement? Whereas Wike said he came to negotiate and discuss issues relating to the Acting Chief of Rivers State, the CJN Office said Wike came to thank him (the CJN) for sending the Chief Judge Bayelsa State to swear Mr. Wike in as Governor
7. Mr. CJN, you gave that directive to Bayelsa CJ in May 2015 and directive was executed on 29 May 2015, why did Mr. Wike wait till October/December 2016 when his Governorship case was pending before you to come and thank you? Did he just come empty handed or with the state "souvenir"? What was the price of the souvenir?
8. Mr. CJN, we presume that you gave the directive to the CJ of Bayelsa State in the ordinary course of your duty, why would Mr. Wike thank you in private, if he must thank you at all? Yet you waited until the Punch Newspaper reported of your secret meeting with Mr Wike before you issued a statement? And both of you didn't know what your meetings were about, hence the contradictory accounts?
9. Mr. CJN, was it a mere coincidence that immediately after the APC and the Punch Newspaper bust the bobble of your private meetings with Wike in Nigeria, you the CJN, travelled to UAE/Saudi Arebia, Justice Inyang Okoro travelled to UAE/Qatar, plus two other Justices, Governor Wike and Senator Olaka Nwogu of Rivers State also travelled to UAE all within the same period, within a week before the Judgment was delivered in Wike?
10. Mr. CJN, can you deny that Justice Okoro, Wike and Sen. Olaka Nwogu did not meet at UAE/Qatar before the judgement and can you cause your International Passport and those of these 3 other persons to be presented to the DSS, the Police or any agency of your choice for scrutiny?
11. Mr. CJN several petitions have been written to you on allegations of corruption against Judges which you swept under the carpet. Were there no petitions to your office of how the Governor of Rivers State set up a program to compromise the Judiciary? A petition forwarded to your office as far back as June 2015? Yet you swept the petition under the carpet?
Mr. CJN, Nigeria deserves much better than what you offer. The DSS is duty bound to protect the Nation from any national security challenge. To have such level of subversion of justice from compromised and shameless judges can led to national security breakdown.
Mr. CJN, how much did you get from the Election Petition racket?
