BAYELSA: More dirty tales of allegations to bribe justices

Even as the judicial arm of government seeks to extricate itself from alleged corrupt practices by some of its officials, more accusations are coming to life in Bayelsa state.

The two major parties in that state have continued to exchange accusations over attempts to bribe justices of the Supreme Court by the other party to procure favourable judgement in the State Governorship appeal before the apex court.

The Bayelsa state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had in a statement, promised to expose every move by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to bribe Justices of the Supreme Court to swing the appeal in favour of Governor Seriake Dickson.

The APC through its Publicity Secretary, Hon. Panebi Fortune, alleged that the party had set up of a special Monitoring team to monitor the planned attempts by the PDP to bribe the Supreme Court judges.

Reacting, the PDP insisted that the governorship candidate of the APC is the one who allegedly wants to bribe the judges to procure favourable judgment.

The State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Barrister Osom Macbere described the APC allegation as a complete balderdash, diversionary and should not be taken serious by any right thinking Bayelsan and indeed Nigerians.

According to the APC, though the recent report by its monitoring team showed that the PDP is planning to send a high powered delegation to Abuja ahead of the Supreme Court Judgement and boasting that the judges are loyalists of the last administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The party stated that it is ready to fight to the end to get justice for the people and recover its alleged stolen mandate.

Read also: Pastor says Justice Okoro lied over Amaechi’s bribe allegation

Panebi claimed that the syndicates involved in the transfer of funds meant for civil servants salaries used as bribe will be investigated and prosecuted, “the pre and post election activities has shown how desperate the Governor Seriake Dickson administration is in the quest for power.”

But the PDP spokesman, likened the APC statement to the proverbial ‘pot calling the kettle black’.

He further noted, that it is sad the APC statement is coming on the heels of the recent revelation by very senior Justices publicly accusing top members of the APC at states and national levels of allegedly attempting to bribe them to secure favourable judgements for their governorship candidates in some states.

He recalled how, the APC leadership in Bayelsa State has on several occasions, before and after the last governorship polls in the state, boasted of using federal might to win elections in the State, instead of the popular votes of Bayelsans and wonders how the same people are now turning round to point accusing fingers at the PDP.

According to him, “what the APC is doing is to divert the attention of Bayelsans and Nigerians away from the truth, which is already in the public domain, that it is they (the APC) that have been bribing and attempting to do the same to subvert the course of justices, as was alleged recently by some senior justices of the Judiciary”.

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