N55 million Bribery Scandal: ICPC Drags Wabara, Former Education Minister, Osuji, Before Supreme Court

An Appeal Court reprieve recently granted former Senate President, Adulphus Wabara in respect of allegations of corruption levelled against may soon terminate as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission ICPC heads to Supreme Court, seeking to nullify the Appeal Court Judgment in his favour.
Wabara and the former Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji had hitherto been engaged in an extended legal battle to prevent a trial court from entertaining a suit filed against them, alleging their involvement in sharing the sum of N55 million bribe reportedly from Education Ministry between 2004 and 2005, in the past regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

On June 1, however, reprieve came their way when the a Court of Appeal dropped the charges against them in a judgment delivered by wife of former governor of River State, Justice Mary Odili

Justice Odili while dismissing the 9-count charge against the appellants said the allegations slammed against them were entirely frivolous, baseless and lacking in merit.

Not satisfied with the Judgment, the ICPC has therefore, proceeded to the Supreme Court to file a notice of appeal, raising five grounds to nullify the Judgment by the Appeal Court, praying the Supreme Court to uphold the ruling of the trial court which dismissed the preliminary objection filed before it by Wabara and others (defendants).

 The ICPC is arguing that the Appeal Court had erred in law by granting Wabara and Osuji reprieve, and hence further prayed the Supreme Court to direct the trial court to proceed with the trial of the respondents.

The ICPC argued further that the Appeal Court erred in law by demanding that the applications against the defendants ought to have been accompanied by sworn statements by witnesses, noting that such a demand was needless since the trial court had obtained proof of evidence which had established a prima facie case already.

The anti-graft Commission is also faulting the Appeal Court Judgment on the ground that it alluded to a national broadcast by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the N55 million bribery scandal as having a kind of influence on the trial court, contending however, that the trial Judge understood the principles of separations of powers

  being a trained judge, than to be easily influenced by either a television broadcast by Obasanjo or newspaper reports on what he had said against the defendants.

It also took on the Appeal Court on issue that the trial court compromised the fair hearing rights of the respondents by lumping all issues raised in the applications before him rather than considering them separately.

It argued, however, that the trial Judge while considering the various applications before him formulated many issues which it said were properly considered and resolved against the defendants., stressing that even the defendants have so far, not been able to state any issue in their applications which was not considered by the court.

Before the N55 million scandal broke late in 2004 in the Senate, some senators had accused Wabara then Senate President, of exceeding his authority by authorising execution of various contracts without the knowledge or approval of appropriate Senate committees.

No sooner than the scandal broke than the former President made a national broadcast in which he decried the level of corruption in the Senate and the House of Representatives, alleging that the former Senate President and Committee Chairmen on Education in both the Senate and the House took bribe totalling N55 million from then minister of Education to inflate the budget of Education Ministry for 2005 fiscal year.

The allegation by former President Obasanjo led to resignation by Professor Osuji as Minister of Education, while Wabara also resigned as Senate President in April 2005; six months after the scandal hit the airwaves.

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