* Ikpeazu
Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has become more desperate in his
bid to bribe the Supreme Court to evade justice over a case of submission
of false information and fake tax certificate filed against him by a
chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State, Sir Friday
Nwosu.

 Pointblanknews.com gathered that Ikpeazu had on November 25,2017 in Lagos,
doled out a whooping $50 million to his lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun to
bribe Justices of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General, Abubakar
Malami (SAN) to ensure that the court delivers judgment in his favour.

 The governor reportedly barked at Olanipekun that he must do everything to
ensure that he is not removed from office by the Supreme Court, but the
senior lawyer reminded Ikpeazu that he has budgeted $5 million for each of
the Supreme Court Justices and relevant official lawyers in the executive
arm of government including some members of the newly inaugurated
Financial Crimes and Corrupt Cases monitoring committee.

 The bribe in dollars, delivered to Olanipekun in Ghana must go bags, was
meant to bribe Malami who will help them to talk and deceive the Supreme
Court Justices that it is President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to
deliver judgment in Ikpeazu’s favour.

 The governor who was accompanied on the nocturnal visit by an
international businessman, Mr. Charles Nwangwa, a member of his legal
team, Chief Theo Nkire and few others, reportedly boasted that he has
mortgaged Abia State for 20 years to be able to bribe to stay in power,
and told Olanipekun that he does not want to hear that the AGF or any
Justice of the Supreme Court rejected the bribe.

 Ikpeazu also warned the senior lawyer that is better to dissolve the
Supreme Court than to allow them remove him from office, but Nkire and
Olanipekun reportedly advised him not to talk of dissolving the Supreme
Court publicly no matter how strong he feels.

 Pointblanknews.com further gathered that Ikpeazu retorted that the Supreme
Court, who had received huge sums of money from him in his different cases
against Dr. Alex Otti, Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah and failed to stop
Nwosu from returning to Court, should be dissolved without delay.

 When the businessman, Charles Nwangwa suggested that instead of paying
such huge bribe to the Supreme Court Judges; their kinsman, Nwosu should
be approached to take half of the $50 million, but the governor said Nwosu
is incorruptible and that he will kill him, no matter how long it takes.

 The late night meeting was said to have ended with Olanipekun advising the
governor to take things easy that there is a government in the country
while Nwangwa promised to talk to Nwosu to have sympathy on Ikpeazu.
Only recently Value and Integrity Group (VIG) kicked against the inclusion
of Wole Olanipekun in the Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial
Monitoring Committee (COTRIMCO).They accused him of not being in a good
position to oversee corruption cases.

 According to the group led, “Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN has frustrated the
trial of many corruption cases. In the civil case filed by Access Bank
against Mr. Akingbola in the United Kingdom, the English court delivered
judgment  in 2012 and awarded damages of N212 billion in favour of the
bank. In opposing the registration of the judgment by the Lagos high court
Chief Olanipekun said that the federal high court was the competent forum
for the registration of the judgment.

 “The Lagos high court agreed and struck out the registration. The judgment
was set aside. When the Central Bank of Nigeria took steps to register the
judgment at the Federal High Court, Chief Olanipekun again objected and
said that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to register the
judgment. The objection was upheld and the judgment was not registered.
“Furthermore, after the dismissal of Mr. Akingbola’s criminal case by the
federal high court Chief Olanipekun turned round to argue that the Lagos
High Court cannot try him because the offences committed by him are
federal offences as they arose from the capital market.

 “The Court of Appeal upheld the objection but the Supreme Court has
rejected such frivolous objection in another case but Akingbola’s case is
still suspended because his appeal has not been determined by the Supreme
Court. The case of Mr.. Ebong, ex-bank Managing Director of Union Bank has
also been subjected to undue delay by Chief Olanipekun.

 “Chief Olanipekun has also tried but failed to set aside the judgment of
the Lagos high court in the case of Emmanuel Nwude who led a team of 419
kingpins to trick the bank manager of a Brazilian bank to part with $242
million which led to the collapse of the bank. Even though Nwude pleaded
guilty and was convicted and jailed 5 years, Chief Olanipekun recently
approached the Court of Appeal to return the ex-convict’s forfeited
assets.

 “Chief Olanipekun has successfully frustrated the trial of Senator
Adolphus Wabara who was charged with corruption by the ICPC in 2005. The
senior lawyer is currently defending the accused persons in the cases of
FRN v Tukur; FRN v Wagbasoma and FRN v Dokpesi which are pending at the
trial courts and appellate courts.

 “Since Chief Olanipekun is defending such suspects and others being
prosecuted by the EFCC and ICPC the prosecution will be put in an
advantaged position if he is allowed to monitor the judges trying the
cases. The judges are equally going to be intimidated by the presence of
the lawyer in their courts for fear that he may write adverse reports on
them. We also wonder how the Chief can be asked to ensure that the judges
trying corruption cases do not delay trials which are caused by him and
fellow bar leaders.”

 Credit: Pointblanknews. Com