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EXPOSED!!! How APC, Amaechi tried to rig Akwa-Ibom Gubernatorial election in 2015′ – Judge reveals
Another Nigerian judge caught in the State Security Service crackdown on senior judicial officers has written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed, stating how the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, allegedly tried to manipulate him.
Inyang Okoro, a Supreme Court judge, whose home in Abuja was amongst those raided by masked SSS operatives on October 7 and 8, said security agencies came after him because he turned down pressure to help influence the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling on Akwa Ibom gubernatorial election.
In a letter dated October 17, 2016, and addressed directly to Mr. Mohammed, Mr. Okoro said operatives lured him to open his gate late at night using President Buhari’s name.
“On Friday, October 7, 2016, at about 9:00 p.m., I received a phone call from an unfamiliar caller. He introduced himself as an official from the presidency.
“He told me he had a letter for me from Mr. President. I immediately left my study room and went to open the door. Upon the door being opened, I saw so many heavily armed men with an inscription “DSS” on their uniform. One of them who was in mufti told me they were to search my house.
“I requested that I be allowed to inform the Chief Justice of Nigeria but they rebuffed, rather, they seized my phone from me,” Mr. Okoro said.
The letter, first published by Sitippe.com, is the latest in the emerging fallout of the SSS raid, which was conducted between late Friday, October 7, and early Saturday, October 8.
The raid saw scores of SSS operatives swoope on the premises of the judges arresting some of them.
The move, which the SSS described as a ‘sting operation’ in a statement, was conducted in Abuja, Enugu, Gombe, Kano and Port-Harcourt.
Seven allegedly corrupt judges were arrested in the raids while attempts to arrest more were frustrated.
Mr. Okoro’s letter came a few days after his junior colleague, Adeniyi Ademola, wrote a similar onethat was also addressed to Mr. Mohammed.
In his, Mr. Ademola blamed the Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, for his own ordeal and said the SSS operatives frightened him with their firearms.
After narrating the initial tactics of the officer, Mr. Okoro went on to detail the items taken from his premises which he said included a unit of iPad, three phones, $38,800, N3.5 million and four chequebooks.
He said he signed the items declaration form presented to him by the SSS after the raid. Unlike Mr. Ademola, he did not say he was forced to sign at gunpoint.
Mr. Okoro, however, said the operatives refused his appeal to allow him sleep in his home and visit their office in the morning, adding that the guns they were holding also made it difficult for him to argue with them.
Mr. Okoro said they asked him to explain the source of funds found in his home.
“I told them that having received the sum of $24,000 and £10,000 a year for the past three years of my sojourn in this court as annual medical and vacation allowances. And having spent more than £5,000 on each of the three trips I have so far made abroad, I was entitled to have more than the amount recovered from me.
“Put differently, my Lord, the money was the balance of my estacode received from this court for the past three years.”
Mr. Okoro said all the money was quite outside the estacodes he had received for the international conferences he attended since joining the Supreme Court.
He told Mr. Mohammed that up till when he was writing his letter on October 17, exactly 10 days after the raid, the SSS has not confronted him with any petition or complaint from any quarters.
“Rather, they have grilled me asking questions on some non-existing properties around the country. They have also doubted the age of my children alleging that they are toddlers,” Mr. Okoro said. “This is sad and unbelievable.”
Specifically, Mr. Okoro accused Mr. Amaechi of being behind his ordeal.
The senior jurist recounted how Mr. Amaechi allegedly visited him in the run-up to the Supreme Court decision on the appeal about the outcome of the Akwa Ibom governorship poll in 2015.
The election pitted incumbent Emmanuel Udom of the Peoples Democratic Party against Umana Umana of the All Progressives Congress, who also allegedly visited the judge.
Mr. Udom won the election held on April 11, 2015, and the Supreme Court upheld it on February 3.
Mr. Okoro said the outcome would have been different if Mr. Amaechi had had his way.
The judge said he strongly believed that this his travail is not unconnected with a verbal report he had informed the Chief Justice about on February 1, 2016, to the effect that Mr. Amaechi visited his official residence.
Mr. Okoro said Mr. Amaechi approached him and said the president of Nigeria and the APC sent him to plead with the judge 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 Umana Umana, the candidate of APC for that election and that if he lost, Akwa Ibom appeal, he would have lost a fortune,” Mr. Okoro said.
“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 cooperated with them.
“Mr response, as I told you on that date, was that it does not lie within my power to grant his request and 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,” Mr. Okoro said.
But Mr. Amaechi flatly denied the allegations on Wednesday night.
In a message to PREMIUM TIMES by his media adviser, David Iyofor, Mr. Amaechi said Mr. Okoro’s allegations against him were baseless and spurious. He threatened to take legal action against the judge.
“This accusation from Justice Okoro against Amaechi is a figment of his imagination,” Mr. Iyofor said.
It was “concocted to obfuscate and politicise the real issues for his arrest and SSS 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.”
“This is a cheap attempt, albeit political move, to drag the name of Amaechi into something he knows nothing about,” Mr. Iyofor said. “Justice Okoro should face his issues and leave Amaechi out of it. He will be hearing from our lawyers.”
Mr. Okoro also detailed how Mr. Umana allegedly paid him a separate visit in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling, adding that he was there with a clergyman.
“My Lord will recall that I also reported that Mr. Umana Umana visited my residence before Amaechi’s visit. He also made the same request of assistance to win his appeal at the Supreme Court. Mr. Umana talked about “seeing” the justices who would hear the appeal.
“Pastor Ebebe Ukpong who led Mr. Umana Umana to my house intercepted and said that the issue of “seeing” the justices was not part of their visit and that as a pastor he would not be part of such a discussion.
“Mr. Umana apologised and I advised them to go and pray about the matter and get a good lawyer. That was how they left my house,” Mr. Okoro said.
Notwithstanding, Mr. Okoro said members of the APC in Akwa Ibom continued to assume that he was the one responsible for their loss at the Supreme Court.
“Could I have resigned from the court simply because people of Akwa Ibom had a matter before it?” Mr. Okoro queried rhetorically.
Mr. Umana could not be reached for comments Tuesday night.
Mr. Okoro told the Chief Justice he had never been involved in corrupt practice.
Zacch Adedeji: And The Revenue Keeps Increasing By Rabiu Usman
By Rabiu Usman
It was President Bola Tinubu that declared that in the first half of this year, the revenue of Nigeria soared to over N9.1 trillion, compared to the first half of 2023.
For instance, N5.2 Trillion accrued into the Federation Account for the period January to June 2023, while a total of N7.3 Trillion accrued into the account for the period July to December, 2023.
However, for June this year, accruals into the Federation Account rose to N2.483 trillion in June 2024. It was N2.324.792 trillion in May, meaning for the two months of May and June this year alone, about N4.8 trillion accrued into the Federation Account while N5.2 trillion accrued into the account for the first six months of last year.
The President attributed the revenue increase to the government’s efforts in blocking leakages, introducing automation, and mobilizing funding creatively, all without placing an additional burden on the people.
A few days after the President spoke glowingly of the considerable increase in the revenue of the country, a process being powered by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), under the Chairmanship of Dr Zacch Adedeji, the Nigeria’s Zaccheus the Tax Collector, the World Bank also confirmed the progress being made in the area of revenue generation.
The World Bank projected that following the recent increase in government revenue, Nigeria’s revenue-to-GDP ratio could rise to over 10.5 percent by the end of 2024.
Ndiamé Diop, World Bank country director for Nigeria shared the forecast during an interactive session on ‘Fiscal Reforms for a More Secure Future’ at the 30th Nigerian Economic Summit, held in Abuja last month.
Also, according to data released in September by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue increased by 99.82% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2024.
During this period, total VAT revenue reached N1.56 trillion, a 9.11% increase compared to the previous quarter.
The NBS report highlighted that the revenue growth was driven primarily by local payments, which brought in about $484 million, while foreign payments contributed $242 million. VAT on imports generated $228 million.
However, despite the level of progress already made, the FIRS under Dr Zacch Adedeji is not done yet.
Various innovations are daily being introduced to ensure seamless payment of taxes by Nigerians.
Last week, the Taxpayer Services Department of the FIRS launched the new USSD code *829#, aimed at revolutionizing taxpayer engagement and access to essential tax services.
According to the FIRS, the initiative was aimed at “simplifying tax processes and providing a seamless, efficient service experience.”
With the *829# USSD code, taxpayers can now effortlessly access a range of services, including TIN retrieval, Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) verification, and general inquiries all from the convenience of their mobile phones and with no need for internet access.
Also, Zacch Adedeji is everywhere, explaining the four tax bills currently before the National Assembly, assuring that it will not reduce the funding or operational efficiency of government agencies.
Last week Wednesday, Adedeji addressed the heads of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) at the Revenue House in Abuja. He allayed concerns surrounding the proposal to rename the FIRS as the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), clarifying that the change is intended to streamline and improve agency efficiency.
He said the main goal was to align government revenue practices with current fiscal demands to ensure all agencies are well-funded and effective.
Adedeji further highlighted that the proposed legislation would enable government agencies to concentrate on their core responsibilities without the added task of revenue collection.
“The bills, once enacted, will allow agencies to focus on their primary functions instead of managing tax collection duties,” he explained.
Adedeji, who appears to have taken up the job of an Explainer concerning the new tax bills, further pointed out that the bills were the aftermath of President Tinubu’s administration recognition of the need for a unified tax code to reduce complexity and stimulate economic growth.
Perhaps, by the time this is being read, Dr Zacch Adedeji, will be standing before another audience to explain the ideas behind the new tax bills and their capability to further sore up the revenue base of the country, because for him, the revenue must keep increasing.
Usman, a public affairs commentator lives in Abuja.
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