By Our Correspondent
A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted leave to commence suit seeking an order for the arrest of the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and the minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onu, over allegations levelled against them by two Justices of the Supreme Court.
Justice John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court and Justice Sylvester Nguta, alleged that they were in some times past approached by Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation and former governor of Rivers state, to influence judgments on the governorship elections in Akwa Ibom and Ekiti states.
The suit was filed by Kingdom Human Rights Foundation group.
The plaintiff, in its substantive suit, asked the court to make an order of mandamus compelling the Department of State Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to “perform their statutory obligation” by immediately arresting and prosecuting the two ministers.
The group also sought an order of mandamus compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack both ministers “in public interest and public morality” based on allegations of attempts to influence court decisions as recently alleged by the two Justices of the Supreme Court.
Okoro, who first opened the can of worms, stated that his trouble started when he refused an attempt by Amaechi, to bribe him so that the court’s decisions on the Akwa Ibom election would be manipulated in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Umana Umana.
In a letter he addressed to the National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Okoro claimed that Amaechi tried to bribe him on February 1, 2015, to influence a ruling made four days earlier and took him nine months, to alert the public about the alleged bribery attempt.
The letter, dated October 17, 2016, was addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed.
Amaechi has denied the allegations in several statements.
A copy of the order made by Justice Ahmed Mohammed, granting leave to the plaintiff to go ahead with the suit, was obtained yesterday.
