Following detailed revelations by Saharareporters about a deal between Emmanuel Andy Uba and some justices of the Supreme Court, Mr. Uba has withdrawn the illicit lawsuit from existence.
Saharareporters can report that Mr. Emmanuel Nnamdi Uba (popularly known as Andy Uba) has withdrawn his latest lawsuit pending before the Supreme Court in which he sought to be declared governor-in-waiting in Anambra.
Mr. Uba’s withdrawal of the lawsuit came in the face of detailed revelations by Saharareporters exposing an illicit deal between the controversial politician and some justices of the Supreme Court.
Saharareporters gave details of Uba’s “purchase” of several justices, principally Aloysius Katsina-Alu, Musdapher, Adekeye and Niki Tobi. This nucleus of justices had then promised Uba that they would hand down a ruling decreeing that he should return as governor effective March 2010.
Our investigations began after sources close to Mr. Bello Adoke, an Abuja-based lawyer notorious for bribing judges and justices, disclosed that the lawyer was boasting about restoring Uba to the office of governor. Adoke told several confidantes that Uba had earlier given cash to Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa to pass on to the justices, but that the AG embezzled the money. A distraught Uba then hired Adoke who openly gloated to friends and associates about his meetings with several to seal the seal for Uba.
Adoke was so confident about the deal that he dispatched a junior lawyer in his law office, Taiwo Abe, to represent Uba. One senior advocate in Abuja, who said his first instinct was to doubt the veracity of our reports, said he changed his mind on “discovering that Adoke had sent a relatively inexperienced lawyer to anchor Uba’s case. It was fishy to me, but the briefs were obviously prepared by senior lawyers.”
Adoke, described as a weak lawyer, was made a senior advocate of Nigeria in 2006 through the support of Bayo Ojo, an Attorney General under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. A year later, Justice Katsina-Alu elevated Adoke as a member of the legal practitioners privileges committee, a body that vets and selects those to be conferred with SAN. Adoke’s appointment into the committee was seen as unusual and caused uproar. “It had never been done in the history of the legal profession,” said an official of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA). Katsina-Alu also appointed another lawyer, Lucious Nwosu, into the privileges committee. A Port Harcourt-based lawyer told Saharareporters that Mr. Nwosu and Adoke were well-known go-betweens for those who wanted to “settle Katsina-Alu and other justices.”
Our sources said “Andy” Uba was irate that Aondoakaa pocketed the money he, Uba, gave the AG for transfer to Katsina-Alu. Uba told associates that he was instrumental to Umaru Yar’Adua’s appointment of Aondoakaa as attorney general. One source credited Uba with stating that he gave Aondoakaa’s name to Yar’Adua after discovering that the attorney general and Katsina-Alu were extremely close.
Following our series of reports on the deal, numerous lawyers, civil groups and democratic activists came out in condemnation of what one legal luminary described as “Uba’s misadventure to use his ill-gotten wealth to damage the judiciary.”
On learning that Uba’s latest lawsuit had reached a dead-end today, a constitutional lawyer said he shuddered at what the Supreme Court would have done to itself had they gone ahead to entertain Uba’s lawsuit. “I congratulate Mr. Uba on his return to the dictates of common sense,” the lawyer said.
Even so, another lawyer we contacted in Abuja said she would advise Governor Peter Obi’s lawyers to insist that the court formally dismiss Uba’s latest lawsuit. “Otherwise,” she said, “no one can rule out another back door attempt by Uba to steal the governorship. The man obviously commands too much money.”
Saharareporters learnt that some members of the Katsina-Alu panel that was hearing Uba’s case insisted on going ahead and installing Uba “whatever the consequences.” However, several other justices, especially those who were not members of the panel, said they were disturbed by the damage done to the reputation of the court. “Must this court commit suicide to please one man’s bloated ego?” one of the justices complained to a lawyer, one of our sources.
It would be recalled that the Supreme Court also recently reversed itself by referring to the Presidential Elections Appeal tribunal for adjudication a case brought before it by the Hope Democratic Party (HDC). HDC had challenged the legitimacy of the last elections over the lack of serial numbering of the ballot papers, a complaint the court had previously dismissed in its final ruling last December by which it gave a dubious judicial victory to Yar’adua’s fraudulent election.
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