conversation with the legislator published by SaharaReporters last week.
In it, the
judge, who was adjudicating in his case following the 2015 election, is
overhead asking for a bribe from Mr. Melaye in US dollars.
Justice Akon
Ikpeme told an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari about her many encounters
with Mr. Melaye, saying he tried reaching out to her after the scandal broke to
encourage her to deny the existence of the conversation, promising to use his
connections at the highest levels to erase the conversation and call logs from
the archives of MTN and security agencies.
In the
audio, Mr. Melaye also promised to assist one of Justice Ikpeme’s daughter to
secure a job at the Ministry of health in Cross River. The judge did not disclose to the
presidential aide how much she received from Mr. Melaye but admitted that the
transactions happened more than twice.
In addition,
several lawyers involved in the case have affirmed that the female voice on the
recording was that of Justice Ikpeme who, they say, speaks exactly as captured
on the tape.
The lawyers
who acted for Dino Melaye in the case said that he stopped paying their fees
after a while and began to sound over-confident about the case. They suspected
his refusal to pay legal fees owed them was because he had bribed Justice
Ikpeme and other judges involved in his case.
According to Saharareporters, One of the
lawyers, who didn’t want to be identified, said Mr. Melaye panicked when his
opponent, Smart Adeyemi, suddenly procured the services of a legal titan, Wole
Olanipekun (SAN), to defend the case against Mr. Melaye, who allegedly did not
win the primaries to secure his party nomination as required by law.
During that
period, Melaye issued a statement denouncing the All Progressives Congress
National Leader Bola Tinubu as plotting to oust him because of his support for
Senate President Bukola Saraki.
After
Justice Ikpeme first dismissed the case of Mr. Adeyemi for filing outside the
prescribed timeframe, the Court of Appeal returned the case to the lower
tribunal, curiously insisting that the case be heard by Justice Ikpeme’s
panel. Justice Ikpeme is said to have
subtly suggested that the Court of Appeal President, Justice Bulkachuwa, was in
on the deal as well.
Mr.
Adeyemi’s legal team wrote petitions to Justice Bulkachuwa to disqualify the
Justice Ikpeme panel, but she didn’t budge, and Mr. Adeyemi lost for the second
time on technicalities, apparently, Mr. Melaye had bribed Justice Ikpeme for
the second time.
Mr.
Adeyemi’s appeal at the National Assembly Election Petition Appeals Tribunal
suffered a similar fate. It is interesting to note that of the three Senators
from Kogi State, only Mr. Melaye’s election was not nullified at the tribunal
on account of irregularities.
Continue here
0 Comments