Official Corruption: Honourable Mr. Justice TOKODE versus NJC-Nigeria.
Preamble: "When justice rules a nation, everyone is glad; when injustice rules, everyone groans". (Proverbs 29:2CEV)
Motounmori : Mi-Lord, May I confirm if your Court had actually issued the controversial Order being malutilized by the BUA Group; for pulling hairs off the heads of big-wigs inside Dangote Cement Plc's corporate head-quarters?
TOKODE: Not at all. I'm not involved.
Motounmori : I should then suspect, that; you are yet to belong to any particular group of influencers on the Nigerian Bench.
TOKODE: Influencers?
Motounmori: Yes. Those who call all of The-Shots; from the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The compulsorily retired Honourable Mr. Justice Ikechukwu Okeke will certainly confirm what I'm about to tell you.
Defining Justice : One of our reputable veteran journalists in Nigeria, Sonala Olumhense, says; "To be clear... the Buhari government does not know the spelling of JUSTICE". (The Sunday PUNCH dated 17th December 2017 )
Just as millions of fellow Nigerians are seriously groaning at home, leaving in droves even as they perish at sea, and being murdered in their farms by privileged herdsmen; under the Muhammadu Buhari Administration. And the leadership of the country says nothing is really amiss.
Updating Your Archives: "IBORI: EFCC, Aondoaka on fresh collision course". (Sunday PUNCH, 20th September 2009)
"ONNOGHEN: Abubakar Malami denies leaking EFCC's high-profile cases list". (Saturday PUNCH, 9th September 2017)
"55 Nigerians stole N1.3trillion in 7years -Federal Government of Nigeria". (Daily TRUST, 19th January 2016)
"Plundering of Plunder". (INSIDER Weekly, 19th April 2010)
"How I became victim of Nigerian Judiciary's injustice -Honourable Mr. Justice Okechukwu OKEKE". (The NATION, 28th May 2013)
"Court remands SIX bankers over N8billion Central Bank of Nigeria fraud". (Daily TRUST, 3rd June 2015)
"Nigerian Governors perpetrate high level corruption -ICPC Chief". (Daily TRUST, 14th April 2016)
"NSCDC arrests Civil Servant for stealing transformer parts". (The PUNCH, 9th May 2016)
"UK Court convicts businessman for bribing Nigerian officials". (The PUNCH, 13th May 2016)
"Oronsaye of Financial Action Task Force got double funds for same activities -Witness". (Daily TRUST, 14th June 2016)
"Nigeria was badly governed -Yemi Osinbajo". (Daily TRUST, 7th September 2016)
"We recommended Justice Ademola's sacking to Buhari -Nigeria Judicial Council" (The PUNCH, 8th December 2018)
"Appeal Court refuses to unfreeze Honourable Mr. Justice Innocent Umezulike's N50million Account". (The PUNCH, 11th December 2017)
"Appeal Court quashes corruption charges against Justice Nganjiwa". (The PUNCH, 12th December 2017)
"Nigerian judges can collect personal gifts, Senoir Advocate of Nigeria tells EFCC". (The PUNCH, 14th December 2017)
"US$1billion Boko Haram fund tears Senators, Representatives apart". (Sunday PUNCH, 17th December 2017)
"Chief Judge illegally transferred Farouk Lawan's US$620,000 bribery case -Federal Government of Nigeria". (The PUNCH, 4th January 2018)
Hmmmmmmmn... You really need to be a genius, if you must attain the social status of becoming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Whereas; some of our identifiable senior advocates in Nigeria hardly know how to handle prudential ambiguities. Kindly TAKE NOTICE of Appeal Court rulings on the cases involving Umezulike and Nganjiwa. Whereas Umezulike was innocently ignorant of how he could have accessed his N50million Account (before the EFCC lawyers filed their appeal against a Court Order that had gotten effectually lapsed).
In Retrospection: Whereas; the league of anti-corruption crusaders in Nigeria had a tough time trying to persuade President Muhammadu Buhari, NOT to appoint the particular one Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (a lawyer) as a cabinet minister in Nigeria.
The complaints against Mr. B.R. Fashola revolved around some of the very expensive public projects which the lawyer had planted on the landscape of Lagos State in Nigeria. And these had specifically included his advertised N78.3million personal website (funded from the Public Purse). And the cash sum of N338million? For which the then Speaker (Adeyemi Ikuforiji) is at present facing a court trial. The ex-governor's response to publications made against his style of administration then was that;
"After all; I never signed any cheques for contractors to collect public funds in Lagos State".
The man was later appointed (against overwhelming public opinions) as a super-charged minister; super-intending over three particularly sensitive ministries (including Power, Works and Housing). And barely two years after becoming a minister; a public scandal has become uncovered inside Babatunde Fashola's Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
"What scandal?"
We shall presently deal with the available details of how a Presidential Committee of Investigators had unveiled the Director of Finance and Accounts serving Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (as minister-in-charge of Power, Works and Housing). The Civil Servant, who is a northerner; had allegedly acquired a quarry, several houses, and numerous exotic cars in Abuja-Nigeria. All of these; within two years of working for the lawyer who signs no cheques for contractors to collect public funds.
Comedy Enclave: "On the 8th day of March 2013; one 'Funke Ogunbiyi' came to my Chambers at about 09:04am, completed the visitor's form in which she stated her address as No. 5A George Street, Ikoyi, Lagos and wrote her phone number... She was led into the Chambers. She introduced herself as a daughter of the Honourable Justice Clara Ogunbiyi of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, that she was living with her husband at No. 5A George Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, and that the mother directed her to tell me to discharge the Order of 1st March 2013, as there was no basis for the order".
Just like that?
Infra dig!
"No basis for a Court Order? Issued by me?' Mused the Honourable Mr. Justice Ikechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court in Lagos-Nigeria.
Trivialization of jurisprudence or containerization of a jurist?
"I advised her that; since they have filed a Motion on Notice, for the setting aside of the Order of 1st March 2013, their Counsel should meet the Registrar of the Federal High Court, for a date, for their motion", the jurist later disclosed further facts.
Every other issue that had to crop-up between "Funke Ogunbiyi" and the Honourable Mr. Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court in Lagos-Nigeria, could be gleaned from the pages of The NATION newspaper edition dated 28th May 2013.
The Igboman actually lost his job at the Federal High Court; just because... He did not 'belong'!
Bolt-Outa-Blues: Whereas; The PUNCH newspaper (edition dated 8th December 2017) had elaborately detailed how the one Miss Abimbola Awogboro (and the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project in Nigeria) had reportedly persuaded the National Judicial Council of Nigeria, to have recommended the official suspension and probable disengagement of the Honourable Mr. Justice 'Segun TOKODE from the Nigerian Bench.
"Yes, there is tremendous corruption in the Nigerian judiciary, just as we have it all over the country", opined Sonala Olumhense (in The Sunday PUNCH edition dated 10th December 2017). The syndicated columnist had drawn readers attention to what he calls "Nigeria's Tragedy", quoting the similarities in Goodluck Jonathan's firing of Mrs. Farida Waziri and Muhammadu Buhari's replacement of Ibrahim Lamorde with Ibrahim Magu. As if the chairpersons of the Financial Crimes Commission should be enjoying immunity from prosecution for established prima facie criminal cases. Just as Mr. David Babachir Lawal and Mallam Abdulrasheed Maina are now enjoying, with gusto.
WHEREAS; neither the Chief Justice of Nigeria nor any other privileged member of the National Judicial Council of Nigeria should see him/herself as infallible. Begging the Question;
"Could we say the National Judicial Council of Nigeria had actually meted fair treatment to the case of 'Funke Ogunbiyi' versus the Honourable Mr. Justice Ikechukwu Okeke in May 2013?"
Insight: "Everywhere on earth; I saw violence and injustice instead of fairness and justice... God has set a time and a place for everything. He will judge everyone, both the wicked and the good". (The Preacher 3:16-17CEV)
WHEREAS; the Federal Judiciary Service Commission in Nigeria had actually scrutinized and accepted the credentials submitted by Barrister 'Segun TOKODE before he was issued a Letter of Appointment into Pensionable Establishment, as a Judge of the Federal High Court in Nigeria. That was in December 2015. More than two years after Okechukwu Okeke had been shooed out of the same Federal High Court in Nigeria.
As the matter is now confirmed to have been filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja-Nigeria; we should sheath our swords here. To assist the Court determine the minor issue of jurisdiction and dig properly into what appears messier than the celebrated face-off between Katsina-Alu and Isa-Salami.
Posers:
Considering the fact that only the one (out of advertised 55suspects) particular Mrs. Cecilia Ibru had been tried and jailed for bank fraud (between 2009 and 2017); Motounmori would not wish to believe that the woman was not jailed for allegedly stealing N160.2billion from the then Oceanic Bank Plc. Could she then have become an ex-convict; for presumably 'stealing' the bribe which she most probably had declined to offer/give the Federal High Court judge who tried her?
Oh!
Lest I forget; investigations conducted by Snowball Books have conclusively confirmed that the Honourable Mr. Justice Olusegun Olayinka TOKODE is an active Christian and a southern Nigerian (of Yoruba lineage). He's a product of the University of Lagos who had a 20-year experience at the Bar, backing his appointment as a judge of the Federal High Court in December 2015. He gives and takes no bribe; as our investigators have sufficient evidence to prove that the judge could have been erroneously recommended for premature retirement from the Nigerian Bench (just as Okechukwu OKEKE, an Igboman, was shooed out of the system in May 2013).