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Tag: Bribery allegations

  • 2023 Elections: Bribery allegations rock Ohanaeze Ndigbo

    2023 Elections: Bribery allegations rock Ohanaeze Ndigbo

    The Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been rocked with bribery allegations ahead of the 2023 presidential election in the country.

    This is not the first time the Igbo Organization is rocked with bribery allegations prior to a general election in the country.

    In previous elections, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been accused of collecting money to the tune of millions of naira from many different presidential candidates.

    In 2019, Ohanaeze endorsed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in spite of stiff opposition from members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the South-East zone. The development led to a sharp division in the group.

    Currently, a video clip has gone viral on the internet claiming that the group demanded payments from one comrade Kennedy Iyera as a condition to support a Nigerian presidential candidate from the South East.

    Some unnamed Ohanaeze leaders were said to have demanded money as a condition to participate in a meeting for a facilitation of Nigeria president of Igbo extraction.

    However, the spokesman of the Prof. George Obiozor-led Ohanaeze, Chief Alex Ogbonnia has rubbished the claims, noting that the Ohanaeze had always been at the forefront of the push for a South-East presidency.

    He added that the group regretted ever supporting the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 general elections.

    He posited that the travails presently facing the Igbos are ripple effects of their supporter ship of Atiku in 2019 general elections in the country..

    Ogbonnia dismissed the bribery claim as the most “fallacious, mendacious and callous of all the falsehoods aimed at tarnishing the image of the Igbo as the Judas category that values money more than human conscience.”

    According to him, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo took the advocacy for a president from the South East of Nigeria to all parts of Nigeria, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa’adu Abubakar III; Chief E K Clarke, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the British High Commission and so many other places.

    While insisting on president of South East extraction, he restated that he wrote to Atiku to remind him that their support for him in 2019 was the cause of the current travails of the Igbos.

    “I also wrote to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, reminding him that the current Igbo travails are as a result of our support to his candidacy in 2019. A simple search on the internet will reveal that Ohanaeze had made numerous press releases urging Nigerians and the international community to lend support to the quest by the South East for presidency.

    “On December 13, 2021, I personally addressed an Open Letter to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, reminding him that it is the turn of the South East to produce a president for Nigeria and urging him not to contest the 2023 presidency on the grounds of equity, justice and fairness.

    “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo further propagated the advocacy to the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders (SMBLF) led by Chief E K Clarke, and Chief Nnia Nwodo as the Coordinator General. Other leaders of the SMBLF include Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Leader of the Afenifere; Dr Pogu Bitrus, Leader, Middle Belt Forum, among others. Our gratitude goes to the SMBLF for their irrevocable position to support an Igbo of the South East for presidency in 2023. Similarly, we thank Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for receiving us in his Abeokuta residence about three times.

    “In the social media clip making the rounds, orchestrated by one Comrade Kennedy Iyere, he alleged that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo led by Chief Nnia Nwodo demanded payments from him to attend a meeting at Awka for a Nigerian president from the South East.

    “The truth of the matter: In October 2020, Chief Damian Okeke Ogene, former President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Anambra State chapter was contacted by Chief Iyere to invite the seven state presidents from the seven Ohanaeze States.

    “Ogene explained to Iyere that members would be coming to Awka from distant places such as Port Harcourt, Owerri, Aba, Ebonyi and that it would not be possible for them to go back to their locations on the same day. Iyere promised to secure hotel accommodation for the seven persons, and that he would also pay for their transport costs.

    “At the meeting in one hotel at Awka, Iyere was seated with White men and he highlighted the unbearable injustice to the Igbo by the past Nigerian leaders and the equity in a South Easterner to become the president of Nigeria come 2023.”

    “Paradoxically, we were very delighted and also curious that a non-Igbo and White men were championing an Igbo cause. At the end of the meeting, he pleaded with us to manage seventy thousand naira (N70, 000.00); that is, ten thousand naira each, as transport costs.

    “Some of us refused the money, while some others reasoned that it could be misinterpreted if we rejected the N10,000 each. I am rather shocked by the depravity and a kindergarten shenanigan with which Iyere painted his encounter with the Ohanaeze Ndigbo; that Ohanaeze Ndigbo demanded payment from him in order to support an Igbo for presidency,” he said.

  • EFCC appeals order discharging Justice Yinusa of bribery allegations

    EFCC appeals order discharging Justice Yinusa of bribery allegations

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division to vacate an order striking out the name of a Federal High Court judge, Justice Mohammed Yinusa from nine counts of attempted perversion of the course of justice and corruption by a public official.

    In a Notice of Appeal filed by its counsel, Wahab Shittu on Thursday, the EFCC urged the appellate court to grant an order directing the Chief Judge of the Lagos State High Court to relist and restore the name of Justice Yinusa in the charge pending before the trial court.

    The trial judge, Justice Sherifat Solebo, had discharged Justice Yinusa from the charges on Monday last week after the National Judicial Council (NJC) lifted the suspension it earlier imposed on him over allegations of professional misconduct.

    Justice Solebo had held that with the letter from the NJC tendered by the defence, lifting the suspension of Justice Yinusa, he was immune from prosecution.

    Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC filed four Grounds of Appeal, arguing that the trial judge erred in law by reaching her conclusion.

    In the Notice of Appeal dated February 2, 2021, the anti-graft agency submitted that a judicial officer was not immune from criminal prosecution by constitutional and statutory provisions.

    Citing Section 308 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the EFCC argued that constitutional provisions on restrictions on legal proceedings only applied to a person holding the office of the President or Vice-President, Governor or Deputy Governor.

    Part of the EFCC’s appeal read, “The Federal High Court of Nigeria and a letter dated 23 December 2020 from the National Judicial Council) being administrative actions cannot operate to terminate criminal proceedings involving defendants which had reached an advanced stage leading to testimonies of 10 prosecution witnesses and the admission of several legally admissible evidential materials in the proceedings.

    “The learned trial Judge erred in law by elevating administrative actions of unspecified nature and description over and above the trial of criminal offences vested in the trial court by constitutional and statutory provisions.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, may I state clearly that no judicial officer is covered by immunity from prosecution under the Constitution, as the Constitution only grants the powers to discipline judicial officers for official misconduct to the NJC.

    “A cumulative reading of Sections 153(1) and 158(1), paragraph 21(b) of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution of the FRN 1999 (as amended) does not give rise to the interpretation that a criminal allegation against a judge must be first disposed off by the National Judicial Council (NJC) before criminal proceedings against a judicial officer can be initiated by the state.

    “The Nganjiwa vs FRN’s (Supra) case did not decide that a matter determined by the NJC one way or the other cannot be subject to subsequent criminal proceedings against the serving judge in respect of alleged criminal offences.

    “Constitutional powers assigned to the National Judicial Council and law enforcement agencies are distinct and separate and the exercise of any of such powers is not dependent on the other.

    No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal and the judge has yet to respond to it.

    The NJC suspended and recommended the retirement of Justice Yinusa in 2016 but President Muhammadu Buhari never acted on the recommendation.

    The EFCC had alleged that Justice Yinusa in 2015 had constant and confidential communications with a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ricky Tarfa, who was handling three lawsuits before him.

    It also claimed that the judge collected N1.5 million bribe from Tarfa for the purpose of giving favourable rulings and judgments in the cases.

    Justice Yinusa was also accused of receiving N750,000 from a former Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joseph Nwobike, between March 2015 and September 2015, to get “favourable” judgment in some cases.

    He faced the charges alongside the second defendant and an employee of Rickey Tarfa and Co., Esther Agbo, who was accused of paying N1.5 million allegedly received from Tarfa into Yunusa’s UBA account.

    They both pleaded not guilty to the charge.