Barely 48 hours after the Department of State Services, DSS, had
taken seven suspected corrupt judges into its custody, details of what
led to their arrests and how they were picked up from their homes by
operatives of the agency began to emerge last night.
Competent sources close to the operations told Vanguard that the
agency could no longer watch and allow corrupt judges use their
positions to engage in sabotage, subversion and espionage latching on
huge proceeds of corruption.
A source said that unknown to most Nigerians, some of the judges
had been collecting huge bribes to subvert the will of the people, using
the proceeds to acquire choice property and build fat bank accounts
without putting in enough efforts to do the job they were paid to do.
The source said that based on series of petitions from concerned
Nigerians to checkmate the excesses of the corrupt judges, the DSS moved
in and began a covert investigation, which finally led to the
establishment of prima facie evidence against them.
“As we speak now, we have incontrovertible evidence of brazen
corruption against the seven judges in our custody and we are ready to
charge them to court, even tomorrow.
‘’By our own analysis, the rot in the political scene –
election rigging, inter and intra-party crises and election petition
trial from tribunal to Supreme Court – gave rise to the deep corruption
in the judiciary.
“In the economic sphere, Nigeria lost cases to foreign
investors due to the collusion of judges with foreigners, leading to the
loss of hundreds of billions of Naira by the country, among them, the
Malabo Oil deal where the country lost over $2 billion.
“We have the mandate not only to pre-empt and prevent but also
to take necessary actions to bring the culprits of economic and
financial crimes to book.
‘’That is why we are challenging those who think that our
action is unconstitutional to take us to court since we cannot allow
Nigeria’s security interest to be jeopardised.
“Let it be known that anybody whose action can create hardship
for the rest of Nigerians must be stopped by us before the crime is
committed and there is no other agency that is as capable of doing that
as the DSS,’’ the source said.
It was learned that the DSS had an easy access to the bank accounts
of the detained judges and actually established that they had been
taking bribes from many sources in the discharge of their duties but
used the names and pictures of their wives, children and siblings to
open such banks account, which were not known to most of those whose
names appeared in the bank ledgers.
“When we brought in most of the children, wives and relatives
of the suspects based on the papers we got from the banks, they did not
even have an idea that their names had been used by the judges to open
such accounts.
“But you see under the Bank Verification Number, you must put
in your passports, name, signature and others. So, for some of the
judges, who used fake names and their wives names to open the accounts
into which they paid in the proceeds of crime, they foolishly appended
their signatures or used their pictures, something that gave them out.
“From what we have found out, some of the suspects acted
foolishly in committing the offence because they cannot prove that even
if their children were to earn N1 million monthly since they were born
till date, none of them can accumulate the amount of money we have
traced to their accounts and the type of property they have.
“Look, it may interest you to know that one of the two Supreme
Court judges in our custody has a property worth N1.5 billion in one of
the South-South states. If we may ask, where did he get the money to set
up such project?”
“As far as we are concerned, there is nothing unusual in
arresting corrupt judges and taking them to court because it would be an
offence against the nation to continue to turn a blind eye to mounting
corruption in the judiciary.’’
The official also pointed out that another judge, who is being
detained and questioned, disguised as a shopper in one of the
supermarkets and ended up collecting bribes in Dollars from a ‘client’
only to be caught on CCTV camera.
The official expressed regret that the National Judicial Council,
NJC, which had the responsibility to track and punish corrupt judges,
had tended to condone evil being perpetrated by the corrupt elements,
citing the cases of three indicted judges as example.
“The NJC, having been satisfied that the three judges demanded
and collected heavy bribes, merely recommended the retirement of the one
who took a bribe of N200 million and asked him to be paying back in
bits to the complainant. So, we ask, what happens to the proceeds of
crimes? No answer was given until we stepped in.
“Similarly, the two other judges were retired with full
benefits, smiled away. Since then, the NJC has not been cooperating with
us and we cannot allow the rot to continue in the interest of Nigeria."
Turning to the appearance of Governor Nyesom Wike at the scene of
the arrest of a suspected corrupt judge of the Federal High Court in
Port Harcourt, the official noted with concern the action of the
governor, wondering what he went to do at that time of the night, if he
was not part of the judge’s deal.
“It was the governor, who blocked the DSS operatives from
seizing the $2 million crime proceeds, which the judge had made from the
PDP crisis stoked by a faction backed by the governor.
“But for the our highly professional operatives and service
direction, we would have beaten up Wike that night so that he would have
explanations to make on why he went to a crime scene at odd hours and
aided a suspect to move $2 million crime proceeds to an unknown
location.
“But we already have an idea of where the money was moved to
and we are going to retrieve it and bring the judge to trial. As a
matter of fact, we are going to treat the Port Harcourt FHC judge case
as a ‘special case’, given his collusion with the governor to obstruct
our work.
“The behaviour of the judge has worsened his case. In the last
three months, the judge has been going across the Nigerian borders with
other countries collecting bribes for himself and others.’’
The source also indicated that the judges might be allowed to go
home as soon as they answered the questions put to them by the
operatives, adding that they were being given royal treatment, in view
of their status and the need to give them a conducive atmosphere to
speak up.
Source: Vanguard
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