*Justice Ngwuta says Onu also attempted to influence him on Ebonyi
Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
One of the judges arrested during last week’s raid of judges’ homes by operatives of the Department of State Security Services, Justice Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, has also said that Minister for Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, and Minister for Science and Technology, Chief Ogbonaya Onu attempted to influence him and said he is being hounded because he refused to help them.
In a letter dated 18th October which he sent to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, Ngwuta also accused the DSS of planting money in his house.
He said he had been diagnosed with malaria and had take some anti-malarial tablets and was already in bed when suddenly his housemaid started knocking at his door. He said he opened the door for them after they told him the president had sent a message to him.
Justice Ngwuta said that given the violent manner in which the operatives conducted themselves, he assumed that he had been abducted by armed robbers until he was taken to the DSS headquarters.
Justice Ngwuta also said that he thought there had been a coup.
He explained that through out the raid in his house, he was not confronted with any allegation.
He said: “I became much more disturbed not only for myself but for the future of this great nation, Nigeria. I could not convince myself that any agency of the Federal Government, in a democratic setting, could for any undisclosed reason violate the rights of a Nigerian citizen, a Judicial Officer and Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, for that matter with such impunity.
“I thought that the democratic government had been overthrown and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) abolished or suspended.”
Justice Ngwuta described himself as a victim of his own resolve not to violate his sacred oath of office as a Judicial Officer. According to him, politicians and their collaborators have been hunting him on that account.
He said: “It started in Ebonyi State where I was falsely accused before a panel set up by NJC in August 2000. It was replicated in 2009 when I was pulled from my Division, Calabar, to preside over a motion filed by Senator Andy Uba seeking to be a Governor without going through the process of election. In each case I was exonerated.
“My present plight started sometime between 2013 and 2014. I represented the then Chief Justice of Nigeria in an event organised in the International Conference Centre. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi came in late and sat next to me at the high table. He introduced himself to me and we exchanged contacts. A few weeks after, Fayose’s case was determined in the Court of Appeal.
“Amaechi called me by 6.45 am. He said he had come to see me but was told I had left for my office. When he said he would return in the evening, I demanded to know what he wanted but he would not tell me. He did not come that evening but came the following morning when I was already prepared to go to work.
“He begged me to ensure that Fayose’s election was set aside and another election ordered for his friend Fayemi to contest. I told him I would not help him and that even if I am on the panel I have only my one vote.
“After the Rivers State Governorship election was determined by the Court of Appeal, he called to tell me his ears were full and he would like to tell me what he heard. I told him I was out of Abuja at the time. On my return he came in the evening and even before he sat down he barked “You have seen Wike.”
“I asked him whether that was a question or a statement. Then he made a call and asked me to speak with someone. The man he called said he was a DSS man. We exchanged greetings and I handed the phone to him. Next, he said “Oga is not happy”. I asked him who is the unhappy “Oga” and he answered “Buhari”. I retorted “go and talk to his wife”. He got very angry, and left, remarking “we shall see” several times.
“Your Lordship may recall one morning when I pleaded not be on the panel for Rivers Appeal. Your Lordship said I was already on the panel and asked me to explain why I made the request to be excluded. When I explained what transpired the previous night, Your Lordship told me Amaechi had also attempted to influence other Justices. My Lord, on the day we heard the appeal with your Lordship presiding, we were allowed lunch break at 4.20 pm. The moment I got into my Chambers he, Amaechi, called. When he told who was calling, I said to him, “Your Excellency, you want to issue more threats”? He replied “Have you been threatened before?” I replied “I know a threat when I hear one even if veiled. In any case I will not talk to you” and I switched off my phone.”
Justice Ngwuta said those who failed to destroy him in Ebonyi in 2000 and in Enugu in Andy Uba’s case in the Court of Appeal, Enugu in 2009, “Are now supplying Amaechi with information to fight me for my negative response to his demands, especially my answer to his statement that “Oga was not happy”. This infuriated him and as he stormed out he said he would deal with the situation,” he added.
Justice Ngwuta also narrated how Dr Ogbonaya Onu pleaded with him to give judgment in favour of the Labour Party candidate who was said wanted to cross to the All Progressives Congress.
He said, “The incident I will narrate below may or may not bear on this case. When the Governorship Election appeal from my State, Ebonyi, came to the Court of Appeal, one Mr. Igwenyi, a Senior staff of Federal Judicial Service Commission came to my Chambers and told me that the former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu had pleaded with him to convince me to see him, Dr. Onu. I asked him to call Dr. Onu; he did and I wanted to know why he wanted to see me.
He said it was confidential. I asked when he wanted to see me and he said he would like me to come in the evening. I told Igwenyi that he would have to take me to Dr. Onu in his car and bring me back. I had wanted him to listen to what Dr. Onu had to say but when we arrived, Dr Onu put him in a different room. He asked me whether I know the Hon. President of the Court of Appeal and I told him that His Lordship was my Presiding Justice in the Court of Appeal, Benin Division. He asked of my relationship with the PJA and I said it was cordial. He nodded his head several times in apparent satisfaction.
“He told me that the candidate for the Labour Party was ready to switch over to APC if he could help him win the appeal in the Court of Appeal and that in appreciation of the undertaking to come over to his party, he had obtained the services of three Justices of the Court of Appeal to ensure victory for Labour Party. He said he needed one to convince the PJA to include his three Justices of the Court of Appeal in the five-man panel to hear the appeal.
I told him I would not help him and that I could not in good conscience convey such request even to a Customary Court Judge. He was disappointed and asked me whether I knew the husband of the PJA. I told him I did not know the man. I bid him good night and left. Igwenyi joined me in the passage and when he drove me back to my home I told him what Dr. Onu wanted. Igwenyi apologised to me and assured me that he would not have bothered me if he had known what Dr. Onu wanted me to do.”
On the money allegedly recovered from his house, his Lordship said: “One of them saw the sum of forty thousand naira (N40,000.00) and one thousand naira notes in one of the drawers. He was excited and called their lead who saw the money and said “This is not the kind of money we came to pick”. They left the N40,000.000.
“In the next bedroom I lay on the bed out of sight of the wardrobe from which they brought some boxes and brief cases and travelling bags. All the bags and briefcases and travelling bags except one contained only magazines, papers and some old clothing. Some were empty. Only one small bag was locked with a padlock and this was the only bag that contained money.
They directed me to come over and remove the padlock.I retrieved the key from the side pocket of the bag and removed the padlock and returned to my bed. They put the bags together by the toilet door. They called me again and asked me whether the bags were my property and I answered they were my property. None of the bags were neither opened in my presence nor in the presence of my housemaid who was the only person in the house with me at all material times.
“Some of them stayed in the room while I took them to my study. At this time I became very dizzy and I had to return to lie down on a seat in the parlour and a man with a gun and a face mask stood over me while I dozed. He followed each time I went to the toilet. Another one followed my housemaid each time I asked her for water. There was no way out of the house.
They were at all doors. Those searching and those outside the house went into the house through the main door, kitchen door and back doors. They went in and out of every room including the room in which the bags were kept. I dozed intermittently but my house girl was kept sitting on the steps and was able to observe them coming through the kitchen door but she could not see those who came from back doors, took the second steps and went in and out of the rooms on the upper floor.
“After many hours they came down to the sitting room downstairs and told me they were going to bring down the bags.
“I was speechless when I saw them bringing out huge bundles of different currencies from the bags that had contained only magazine papers and old clothes and some were empty. Some were contained in multi-coloured plastic bags which they tore and discarded. They put the money in different bags and brief cases and then proceeded to count a large amount of N5, N10, N20 and N50 notes which was the change I returned each time I went to shop over the years. They kept waking me up to ask how I came about the small denomination of naira notes. No one asked me any question about the huge sums of money they put in the bags.”
He said he signed the document shown to him because he needed to stay alive to tell his story.
He said: “Confronted with the life-threatening situation I made an instant mental decision that it was better for me to comply with their orders and stay alive to tell my story rather than get shot and killed on the pretext that I attacked them or that I tried to escape.I signed the paper and wrote my name as ordered. No one told me what offence I was alleged to have committed. No one told me of any petition or allegation against me.”
According to him, the only bag that contained money was the small bag he locked with a padlock which he said he unlocked when ordered to do so.
He said: “The bag contained the sum of $25,000, £10 = = and a brown envelope containing the sum of N710,000 which was a monthly allowance paid to me for September 2016. In the brief case, which I carry to my office daily, I had the sum of N300,000 and some loose change. The above are the only sums of money taken from me along with my phones, papers and other household items. I do not know how they came about the huge sums of money I saw for the first time in my parlour on the early hours of Saturday, 8thOctober, 2016. The various sums of money alleged to have been recovered from me were said to be in the social media in the early hours of Saturday, 8th October, 2016 when the invaders were yet to complete their search.”
He said he had been subjected to visits to the DSS offices.
