In another dramatic and desperate move to escape President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State are reaching out to the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. They want the emir, who they believe has the president’s ears, to intervene and get them off the hook in the ongoing probe of corruption in the judiciary. Akpabio, immediate past governor of the state, and Udom are said to have paid over $20 million to the justices of the Supreme Court to procure a favourable judgment in the controversial Akwa Ibom election petition filed by Umana Okon Umana, the APC Governorship candidate.

Justice John Inyang Okoro, a Supreme Court justice from Akwa Ibom state (nominated for the job by Akpabio in 2013), was arrested by the DSS Friday night for being the facilitator of these dollar-for-judgment schemes. It is expected that the former governor and his successor would be implicated by the 57-year-old jurist.

Impeccable sources say Akpabio is sending a brand new Rolls Royce car to the Emir in addition to a payment of $10 million to the revered royal father if he agrees to talk to the president. It is not yet clear if the Rolls Royce the Emir recently acquired is the one from the former Akwa Ibom State governor.

To reach the emir easily, Akpabio and Udom have assembled two groups of foot soldiers who are mostly their family members, acolytes and friends. In one group, led by Akpabio himself, are Prince Ukpong Akpabio, the former governor’s cousin who is a fresh graduate from the Nigeria Law School, Abuja, and Mr Ini Ekong, a dismissed military officer who served the former governor as Special Assistant on security. He holds the same portfolio in the Udom administration. Prince is working through a network of contacts like his law school classmates who are from Kano to reach the emir.

In the other group, led by Gov Udom Emmanuel, are Finance Commissioner Akan Okon; Accountant general Linus Nkang and Engr Ufot Ebong.

The key objective of the two groups is to reach out to all manner of influential persons across the country, including Emir Sanusi to ensure that Justice Okoro is released from detention and the matter is not brought to trial.

Source: Idongesit Okpon

(C) THEGUIDENEWSPAPER