Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has accused Justice Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court of trivialising serious allegation levelled against him.
The minister added that those faced with serious allegation should treat the issue with the seriousness it deserved.
Amaechi, who is also a former governor of Rivers State, stated this in a statement he personally signed in Abuja on Wednesday.
He was reacting to a statement credited to Justice Okoro where he accused the minister of begging him(the judge) to help influence the outcome of the governorship election cases involving Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia States.
Justice Okoro had alleged in a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, that Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate for Akwa Ibom, Mr. Umana Umana visited him and pleaded with him to help them influence the outcome of the governorship election cases involving the three states that were then pending before the Supreme Court.
The judge also alleged that the former governor allegedly said that President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC were interested in the cases.
He alleged that his refusal to grant the request was responsible for his arrest by the Department of State Services a few days ago.
Justice Okoro was among the judges that were arrested by the DSS for alleged corruption.
“The letter by Honourable Justice Okoro is a poor attempt to politicize what is clearly a serious National tragedy and shame. I believe that the issues of corruption at the highest levels of our judiciary should be addressed objectively”
“It is to say the least demeaning and childish of a Justice of the Supreme Court to imply that the security operatives of our nation will arrest a Justice of our Supreme Court for no reason other than the instructions of a Minister. Those faced with serious allegations should treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves and stop trying to court public sympathy and trivialize what is clearly a national tragedy”, the minister stated.
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