The Niger Delta Peoples' Movement under the leadership of Dame lbifuro Thompson Tatua condemns in its entirety that failed and shameful intent of the embattled Justice John Okoro of the Supreme Court to bring to disrepute the name and person of Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in his letter to the Chief Judge of Nigeria dated 17th of October, 2016.
Having gone through Justice John Okoro's letter, it appears His Lordship is playing out a misdirected and ill-constructed script by some callous elements who are avowed political foes of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. We confidently wish to assure them that the plot is dead on arrival.
We have observed that the Nation's Justice system has been besieged by behemoth of corrupt practices which need to be urgently expunged. Hence our total support for the ongoing anti graft crusade in the justice sector.
We are neither deterred nor repulsed by the quantum of lies heaped on the Minister of Transportation in his Lordship's letter to the Chief Justice of the Federation, because we know the Amaechi we unflinchingly support. And this is not the first time the Minister is falsely accused.
For the sake of posterity, it is our desire to draw the attention of the Chief Justice of the Federation and the general public to the hurriedly doctored paragraph in Justice Okoro's letter, where he claimed that Chibuke Rotimi Amaechi visited his official residence to induce him with incentives to pervert justice in favour of the APC in Rivers, Abia and Akwa Ibom States. It is worthy of note that the Supreme Court gave judgement on the River State Governorship election on the 27th of January, 2016 but his Lordship claimed that Rt. Hon. Amaechi tried to bribe him on the 1st of February, 2016 to influence the judgement. Four days after judgement was delivered. This goes to point out that it could only have been a fabrication.
We are further forced to wonder why his Lordship did not make this revelation prior to the DSS raid on his premises and the mind boggling revelation originating therefrom. It is typical of a drowning man to look for those he will drag along into his doom. Does his Lordship know that cancelling an attempt to bribe, by a public official is a criminal offence punishable by two years imprisonment? We refer him to Section 23 (1)(2) and (3) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission Act 2000
The NDPM is therefore, challenging Justice John Okoro to provide tangible evidence of Amaechi's visit to his official residence, he should also provide evidence to show that Amaechi actually forced him to influence an already delivered judgement.
Finally, if he was not acting the script of Amaechi's political foes, why did it take him this long to officially notify the CJN through a letter ?
We wish to remind him that his letter represents the criminal audacity of a drowning and corrupt Minister in the Temple of Justice who is under strict instructions to pull down an innocent man. We urge him to go and redeem his already lost image and leave the name and the person of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi alone.
Signed:
Rowland Orlu
Director of Communication.
~THE NIGER DELTA PEOPLES' MOVEMENT
