NEWS

Crackdown on Judiciary-‘Judge stuffs N30m cash bribe in shoes’

A judge is under probe for allegedly collecting from a senator
N30million bribe.He stuffed some of the cash, which was in United States
dollars, in his shoes and walked barefooted to his car.

The senator complained to the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) being led Prof. Itse Sagay.

Also yesterday, it was learnt that most of the nine arrested judges had
petitions against them with the National Judicial Council (NJC).

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, is said to have
the list of judges to be investigated in the last five months.

Although the list was shown to some legal authorities by the CJN, no
action was taken by the NJC, a source claimed.PACAC has about 50
petitions sent to it against some judges by some aggrieved Nigerians,

One of the said complaints came from a senator who alleged that a judge
demanded about N50million from him to influence a case but he paid
N30million.The money was delivered to the Court of Appeal Justice in
dollars.

But following the senator’s inability to pay the balance of N20million,
the judge gave judgment against the senator, it was alleged.

A source said:

“The senator told us that the judge asked for N50million but he could
only pay N30million and lost the case for not meeting up with the
balance.
“He said when the judge came at night to collect the bribe, he stuffed
every available space and went to a ridiculous extent of stuffing some
of the money in his shoes. The judge then decided to walk barefooted to
his car.
“We have the complaint against the judge and the senator is ready to
testify because the judge did not refund the N30million to date. The
government is going to see to the logical conclusion of this case
against the judge.”

Asked to name the judge, the source added:

“The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr.
Abubakar Malami (SAN), disclosed the name of the justice at a session
with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to underscore why the bench must
be rid of bad eggs. The NBA has been briefed, let them also talk.
“This is to show that the government is transparent about the whole process. It is not a witch-hunt at all.”

The highly-placed source gave insight into the arrest of nine judges and how the operation was conducted.

The judges are Supreme Court Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro;
the suspended Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin
Division, Justice Mohammed, Ladan Tsamiya, who was picked up in Sokoto;
Justice Adeniyi Ademola( Federal High Court); the Chief Judge of Enugu
State, Justice I. A. Umezulike; Justice Kabiru Auta of Kano State High
Court; Justice Muazu Pindiga (Gombe State High Court); Justice Bashir
Sukola and Justice Ladan Manir, from the Kaduna State High Court.

The source added:

“In fact, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed has had
the list of some alleged corrupt judges in his possession in the last
five months. The list emanated from his office and anti-corruption
agencies. But the NJC did not do anything.
“About 60 per cent of the nine judges under probe have petitions against
them before the NJC. The records are there. Nigerians should ask what
has become of this petition.
“Take the case of the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice I. A.
Umezulike; he had more than three petitions against him. If the
petitioner had not been steadfast, the Judge would not have been
sanctioned by the NJC.“The allegation of N500million bribe against
Justice Pindiga was actually made a “dead-on-arrival” by a Petition
Review Committee of the NJC.”

Unknown to most of the judges arrested, the Department of State Services(DSS) video-taped every details.

The source added:
“The DSS is ready to tender the video clips in court. In fact, some of
the judges will be shocked by the professionalism of the security
agency.
“The clips have already been shown to a few lawyers to prove that due
diligence was followed. We hope the court will allow the prosecution to
show the clips during trial.

The Nation