The embattled former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, distributed a press release denying the findings of a SaharaReporters investigation. The investigation, published last week, found that Mr. Suswam entered into a financial arrangement with Federal Court Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed who is presiding over his corruption trial.
However, SaharaReporters does have a phone recording of Mr. Suswam’s conversation with our correspondent—which lasted more than 30 minutes—and has nine separate instances of him defending, shielding, and begging that the judge not be mentioned in our report.
Mr. Suswam’s press statement lied by saying that “it is offensive, criminal and unethical for Sahara Reporters to have claimed to speak to me during which I pleaded that the Judge be ‘left out of the matter’ in the none-existent [sic] interview. Sahara Reporters has never interviewed me and I never gave any interview to the news medium or speak the words attributed to me in the report under reference.”
In addition to the 30 minute conversation with SaharaReporters, Mr. Suswam later called our correspondent back that very evening to plead again that Mr. Mohammed be left out of the report.
Mr. Suswam is on trial for embezzling 3.1 billion naira during the eight years he was Governor of Benue State. Mr. Mohammed has also been the subject of SaharaReporters investigations and has been exposed for having shady dealings with other politicians including Senate President Bukola Saraki. Specifically, in 2015 Mr. Mohammed gave a ruling preventing the police from charging Mr. Saraki with bank fraud.
SaharaReporters found that Mr. Suswam agreed to pay $1.5 million to Mr. Mohammed for a “soft landing” in his corruption trial. This included a $300 thousand gift provided to Mr. Mohammed following their first meeting in December 2015.
Yesterday, May 31st 2016, another call to Mr. Suswam revealed that he knows he lied because he repeatedly acknowledged that he remembered the 30 minute conversation with SaharaReporters last week.
Highlights from Mr. Suswam’s conversation with SaharaReporters can be listened to below: