Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Chief Arthur Eze allegedly paid<\/p>\n
$4million in bribes to High Court Judges, Appeal Court Judges and some
\nsenior Supreme Court Justices to remove Governor Okezie Ikpeazu whom he
\nvowed to \u201cteach a lesson\u201d for refusing to take his calls,
\nPointblanknews.com investigation has revealed.<\/p>\n
The huge sums were allegedly delivered through cronies of Arthur Eze to
\nHon. Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, a former member of the House of
\nRepresentatives and husband of Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, President of the
\nCourt of Appeal.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com gathered that Hon. Bulkachuwa allegedly collected
\n$1million and transmitted $200,000.00 to his wife, Justice Bulkachuwa
\nwhile $800,000.00 was shared among four members of the Court of Appeal.
\nJustice Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court allegedly
\nhandled the \u201cbooty\u201d on behalf of the \u201cbeneficiaries\u201d of that cadre of the
\nbench.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com sources who pleaded anonymity, because of the
\nsensitivity of the scandal said Justice Okon Abang who delivered the
\nearlier Judgement removing Governor Ikpeazu, got paid an eye popping
\n$200,000 from Justice Auta.<\/p>\n
Apart from the justices of the court of Appeal, some Federal High Court
\nJudges were also paid undisclosed amounts, while the largesse also
\nextended to some Supreme Court justices.<\/p>\n
A Source confirmed that three very influential Supreme Court Justices
\ncollected $500,000.00 each.<\/p>\n
The revelations on how Arthur and certain powerful individuals got the
\nmoney delivered into the hands of Justices, would remain a slight on the
\nseriousness of President Muhammadu Buhari to push back on judicial
\ncorruption and individual impunity, a serious manifestations of
\ninstitutional decay in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Chief Arthur Eze threw himself into the self-succession agenda of the late
\nmilitary dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha.<\/p>\n
Like many other close associates of Abacha from the North, West and other
\nparts of the country, he was handed the mandate of nominating candidates
\nthat would become the governors of the different state in the Eastern part
\nof Nigeria. Prior to the political race that was midwifed through what was
\ndescribed by the late lawyer and politician, Chief Bola Ige, as the \u201cfive
\nleprous fingers\u201d, the five rubber stamp political parties of the time,
\nArthur Eze, becoming increasingly egocentric, took on the task of
\nsponsoring military officers, who would later become, state military
\nadministrators. Through them, he was awarded phony contracts, the proceeds
\ndiverted.<\/p>\n
In the present dispensation, he had sought to continue as the political
\ngodfather of Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state. He had
\ncommitted to donating a total sum of one hundred million naira towards the
\nGovernor\u2019s election but he was only able to come up with about N10million,
\npointblanknews.com gathered.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com sources said that Arthur Eze had thought that he would
\nuse the opportunity of financial contributions to pocket Ikpeazu. But when
\nIkpeazu could not be compromised, the businessman felt his thought of
\npersonally commandeering the funds of Abia would also perish.<\/p>\n
Once Alex Otti of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, whom Arthur
\nEze had supported lost out, he found a new ally in Uche Ogah.<\/p>\n
Arthur Eze, according to Pointblanknews.com investigation executed a major
\nmove by commissioning a team of lawyers who studied an original suit
\ninstituted by Barrister Friday Nwosu, a lawyer seeking to technically undo
\nthe political works of Governor Ikpeazu on the ground of tendering false
\ntax clearance.<\/p>\n
The courts where the papers by Mr. Nwosu were filed deliberately
\nfrustrated the process. However, the man who stood close to play the
\nwilling servant for the ploy of Arthur Eze, Uche Ogah sprang out of the
\nblues and used the papers from Barrister Nwosu to dig the ground under the
\nfoot of Ikpeazu in the law court.<\/p>\n
Arthur Eze had allegedly devoted a sum of $4m to the vast war chest,
\nlargely through the courts, in order to remove Governor Ikpeazu. And for
\nhim, it was not going to be difficult, since he had made a close contact
\nwith General Muhammadu Buhari, whose multi-billion-naira agency, Petroleum
\nTrust Fund, (PTF) was a major financial machine for funding Abacha\u2019s
\nambition in the 1990s. Eze was said to have allegedly promised Aso Rock
\nthat he should be supported in an effort to \u201cknock sense into the heads of
\nSouth-Easterners\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to some of our sources, the ambition of the Muhammadu Buhari
\npolitical movement to take over the Eastern part had found a matching mate
\nin the ambition of Eze for the financial take-over of the East.<\/p>\n
In the evil plot to completely take over the treasury of Abia state and
\nenjoy contract monopoly in the state after Uche Ogah must have been
\nfraudulently installed by judicial over-reach, Judges and Justices are
\nsaid to be proceeding with caution in the handling of the matter because
\nthey want to be sure that everything and the details of money movement has
\nnot leaked to avail the possible hoopla that could arise if the secret
\nleaks to the public.<\/p>\n
The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, had last week reserved judgment
\nin the appeal by Ikpeazu, where he is challenging the ruling of the
\nFederal High Court, Abuja, which sacked him as governor of the state.
\nAfter listening to all parties involved in the matter, a five-man panel of
\nJustices of the appellate court led by Justice Morenike Ogunwumiju,
\ndeferred the matter to a date yet to be fixed, as at the time of filing
\nthis report.<\/p>\n
Arthur Eze is a man with huge ego. He has often paraded himself as both a
\ntraditional kingmaker and an anointer of political office holders. He was
\ninstrumental to fielding so many military officers as political office
\nholders.<\/p>\n
Although, Igbos by tradition are republicans, the paramount stools created
\nfor colonial indirect rule and tax administration has become so serious
\nfor him in independent Nigeria, that he calls himself the Eze of Ukpor, a
\ndormain in Anambra state. Throwing titles, money and influence around, he
\noften benefit from contracts that are signed and never executed.<\/p>\n
In 1991, he was awarded the contract for the purchase and installation of
\na transmitter for old Anambra State Broadcasting Corporation, through his
\nTriax limited in the sum of $774.95m. He collected the money but never
\nexecuted the contract.<\/p>\n
Around the same period, using his military contacts, he was awarded
\nanother contract in respect of equipment for Broadcasting Corporation of
\nOyo State (BCOS) in the sum of N85m. He abandoned the contract.<\/p>\n
Similarly, he sweet talked the administration in Anambra state into
\nsecuring an African Development Bank loan for rural electrification
\nproject in the sum of $115m.<\/p>\n
In Anambra, Nanze limited, his company got a job for rural water supply,
\nscope included borehole extension scheme, pipeline extension, reservoir
\nmaintenance. Contract sum N142,845,910 = $14,338,000 and N28,569,182. From
\nFebruary 12, 1992 later increased by $2,353,784 and $5,182,950 on February
\n2nd, 1999.<\/p>\n
The consultants to the project were DHV of Nigeria and Netherlands.
\nContract executed with a loan obtained by Anambra from ADB, between August
\n1995, a total of $4,708,112 and $9,381,149 was paid to Nanze by ADB as
\nloan for Anambra state government. The project has never materialized. The
\nstate has since then been blacklisted by ADB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Chief Arthur Eze allegedly paid $4million in bribes to High Court Judges, Appeal Court Judges and some senior Supreme Court Justices to remove Governor Okezie…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n