DIRTY WARS: How battle for Abia, A’Ibom and Rivers pitched Amaechi against Justices.

Rotimi Amaechi, one time governor of Rivers State and now Minister of Transportation, is in the eye of the storm. The claims against him are damning, if stories told by aggrieved persons prove authentic anytime soon.

On Thursday, October 20, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court accused him of being behind his travails in the hands of the Department of State Services, DSS.

Ngwuta, one of the judges arrested by the DSS in a nationwide clampdown of senior judges in the country over allegations of corrupt practices and professional misconduct, in a letter to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, indicated that his sin is his refusal to be compromised in the election petition appeals emanating from Ekiti, Ebonyi and Rivers states as proposed by Amaechi.

“My present plight”, he said, “started sometime between 2013 and 2014. I represented the then Chief Justice of Nigeria in an event…Hon. Rotimi Amaechi came in late and sat next to me at the high table…we exchanged contacts. A few weeks after, Fayose’s case was determined in the Court of Appeal. Amaechi called me by 6.45 am…I demanded to know what he wanted but he would not tell me…He begged me to ensure that Fayose’s election was set aside and another election ordered for his friend Fayemi to contest. I told him I would not help him and that even if I am on the panel I have only my one vote.

“After the Rivers State Governorship election was determined by the Court of Appeal, he called to tell me his ears were full… On my return he came in the evening and even before he sat down he barked “You have seen Wike”. I asked him whether that was a question or a statement. Then he made a call and asked me to speak with someone. The man he called said he was a DSS man. We exchanged greetings and I handed the phone to him. Next, he said “Oga is not happy”. I asked him who is the unhappy “Oga” and he answered “Buhari”. I retorted “go and talk to his wife”. He got very angry, and left, remarking “we shall see” several times.

“… My Lord, on the day we heard the appeal with your Lordship presiding, we were allowed lunch break at 4.20 pm. The moment I got into my Chambers he, Amaechi, called. When he told who was calling, I said to him, “Your Excellency, you want to issue more threats”? He replied “Have you been threatened before?” I replied “I know a threat when I hear one even if veiled. In any case I will not talk to you” and I switched off my phone.”

Justice Ogwuta is not alone in accusing Amaechi, as another Supreme Court Justice, John Inyang Okoro, had earlier accused him of moving against him because of his failure to do his bidding in election appeal for Akwa Ibom State.

Also writing to the CJN, Justice Okoro said: “Lord, I strongly believe that my travail is not unconnected with the verbal report I made to you on 1st February, 2016 about the visit to my official residence by H/E, Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and now Minister of Transportation. In that report, I told you My Lord, that Mr Amaechi said that the President of Nigeria and the All Progressives Congress mandated him to inform me that they must win their election Appeals in respect of Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State and Abia State at all costs. For Akwa Ibom State, he alleged that he sponsored Mr Umana Umana, candidate of All Progressives Congress for that election and that if he lost Akwa Ibom appeal, he would have lost a fortune.

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“Mr Amaechi also said that he had already visited you and that you had agreed to make me a member of the panel that would hear the appeals. He further told me that Mr. Umana would be paying me millions of Naira monthly if I co-operated with them. My response, as I told you on that date was that it does not lie with my power to grant his request and that I would do all within my power not to be in the panel for Akwa Ibom State. My Lord graciously left me out of the panel for Akwa Ibom State. That notwithstanding, the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State which lost the appeal at the Supreme Court believe that my presence in the Supreme Court made them to lose the appeal…”

It would, however, be recalled that a judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, had opened the floodgate of revelations and accusations by the senior judges.

Ademola had alleged in his letter, also to the CJN, that he was being victimized because he granted bail to the detained former National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.

He specifically fingered the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, of coming after him for revenge because he had earlier ordered his arrest for professional misconduct while serving as a judge in Kano.

Amaechi, Umana Umana and a pastor, Ebebe Ukpong, have however denied the allegations. Amaechi, in his reaction denying the allegation, also threatened to sue Justice Okoro.

“This accusation from Justice Okoro against Amaechi is a figment of his imagination, concocted to obfuscate and politicize the real issues for his arrest and DSS investigation of allegations of corruption against him.”

“The claims by Justice Okoro against Amaechi are blatant lies, bereft of any iota of truth or even logic. Amaechi did not, and has never approached Justice Okoro in respect of the cases Okoro mentioned or any other case. This is a cheap attempt, albeit, political move to drag the name of Amaechi into something he knows nothing about. Justice Okoro should face his issues and leave Amaechi out of it.

“He will be hearing from our lawyers” Amaechi said in the statement.

For Umana Umana, the accusation against him was also false, adding that he has left behind him the issue of the governorship election and moved on to other things.

Ukpong, who was alleged to have led Umana to Justice Okoro, also denied it, saying though he has known the Supreme Court justice for over 30 years, and sees him as a brother, he would never do anything to pervert justice because of his faith in God and personal principles.

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What has become obvious in what is fast turning into Amaechigate, is the battle for control of key oil rich southern states.

It would be recalled that in the wake of the Supreme Court rulings on the Rivers and Akwa Ibom petition appeals, the National Chairman of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, had literarily taken justices of the court to the cleaners, alluding to the fact that something was wrong and that Buhari had to do something urgent about the spate of judgments of the court that were going against the party.

In his tirade against the Supreme Court judgments, Oyegun lamented that the APC could not afford to leave two oil rich states, Rivers and Akwa Ibom in the hands of the opposition.

Aside being a former governor of Rivers State, with substantial interest in who succeeded him as governor in the 2015 election, Rotimi Amaechi was saddled with the job of the chief campaign manager for Buhari. It was a daunting task for which Amaechi did not only acquit himself but also put his political career on the firing line.

However, the inability of Amaechi and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, to capture key South-south and Southeast states is certainly what triggered the fierce battle at the courts, leading to the current dirty wars. There have even been collateral damages, as in the case of Justice Liman of the Federal High Court, Port-Harcourt, whose home was allegedly ransacked by the DSS in error in what was meant to be a well co-ordinated ‘sting operation.’

Revelations made by Justices Ngwuta and Okoro only underscore the problems with the judicial system in the country and how judgment has continued to be for the highest bidder, especially in election related matters often seen as do-or-die affair.

Some analysts contend, though, that the current travails of the judiciary is a manifestation of a larger ‘intra-class war’ being fought by the ruling class for control of power at the centre.

Allegations of ‘Oga is not happy’, alluding to overwhelming interest of the presidency in the case of the justices, has done more to unsettle Buhari’s anti-corruption war. A matter made worse by the fact that the DSS is being run by the President’s very close kinsman, Mamman Daura.

This is even more so as the National Judicial Council, NJC, has insisted that there is no petition before it against both Justices Okoro and Ngwuta. The DSS has also not refuted the claims.

The dirty wars may have just began. Many who claim to know Amaechi say he has fought even dirtier political battles such as the type that saw him emerge as governor of oil-rich Rivers State.

Will the judiciary succumb to what it describes as attempts to ‘intimidate’ it? And, will allegations that Buhari has embarked on a mission of vendetta slow the anti-corruption crusade? Nigerians wait with bated breath.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

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