May 31, 2010
Some revelations have emerged about the corrupt secret deals that produced the bizarre majority ruling by the Osun State governorship petitions tribunal awarding the election to the incumbent PDP governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Last Friday, May 28, a four-judge majority of the tribunal made up of Justices Abimbola Ogie, Garba Ali, Aliu Mohammed, Haruna Bashir, and Agabtan Benedict, affirmed Oyinlola as the winner of the disputed April 21, 2007 election and dismissed the challenge Rafiu Aregbesola, the Action Congress candidate, to the 2007 election outcome.
Some revelations have emerged about the corrupt secret deals that produced the bizarre majority ruling by the Osun State governorship petitions tribunal awarding the election to the incumbent PDP governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Last Friday, May 28, a four-judge majority of the tribunal made up of Justices Abimbola Ogie, Garba Ali, Aliu Mohammed, Haruna Bashir, and Agabtan Benedict, affirmed Oyinlola as the winner of the disputed April 21, 2007 election and dismissed the challenge Rafiu Aregbesola, the Action Congress candidate, to the 2007 election outcome.
A judicial source disclosed to Saharareporters today that Abimbola Ogie, one of the four judges who reportedly endorsed the unanimous verdict, did not in fact append her signature to the judgment. “This is a highly unusual and curious development,” said the source.
A senior advocate of Nigeria who analyzed the majority decision insisted that the judges failed to address the substantive issues that the Appeal Court had ordered the tribunal to examine.
Another judicial source told Saharareporterporters, “It was obvious that parts of the judgment were altered at the last minute as the tribunal chairman was visibly ill at ease with some of the words and sentences he read while delivering the judgment,” adding, “the judge even used his pen to change some words or cancel others as he read the judgment in open court.”
A high-ranking PDP official told us that, 48 hours before the judgment was delivered, Mr. Oyinlola and his inner circle were still expecting the worst. In fact, the source revealed that, before Oyinlola and the PDP were able to influence the judgment, they were making plans to unleash PDP hoodlums to cause widespread arson and killings targeted at AC members in order to create the impression of “public displeasure” with a judgment that favored Aregbesola. Oyinlola was said to be so uneasy that he contacted former President Olusegun Obasanjo about help in finding a sympathetic panel of justices to hear his appeal in the event that he lost at the tribunal.
Our source added that the intervention Senator Iyiola Omisore, a PDP “stalwart” believed to have overseen the murder of former Attorney General Bola Ige, changed the game.
Omisore, who has wide experience in bribing judges, reportedly offered to broker the bribing of the tribunal members in exchange for Oyinlola’s outright support of his governorship ambition in 2011. Once Oyinlola indicated his acceptance of Omisore’s terms, the rogue senator immediately contacted the Deputy Governor of Gombe State (name????) who then helped to establish "access" to the Chairman of the tribunal who is from Yobe State. Our sources indicated that the tribunal chairman was easily won over once Omisore mentioned the range of cash the Oyinlola camp was willing to dole out. The chairman then promised to get the tribunal’s two Northern judges on board.
Our PDP source disclosed that no less than N3 billion exchanged hands in the ‘bribe for judgment’ deal. Half of the bribe, the source stated, was to be paid to the judges after the judgment.
A source revealed that the three northern judges became jittery about the negative impact of a sharply divided ruling. They moved fast to recruit Justice Ogie to their side and then persuaded another judge, Benedict Agabtan, the lone dissenting judge, not to read a minority judgment. Ogie and Agabtan “reluctantly” accepted the deal after they were also promised “a fair share of the bribe.”
In his response to the judgment, Aregbesola's counsel, Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan (SAN), described his client's petition as still “alive.”
However, he hinted darkly of the consequences of the series of judgments allegedly procured by the PDP. Uwensuyi-Edosomwan said it was better for the judiciary to give the right judgment now than to allow people to seek other means of getting the right verdict. He added that it was widely known that the Osun State gubernatorial election was one of the most rigged elections in 2007.
A lawyer in Osogbo, who once advised the Oyinlola team, disclosed that “they are even more certain now that they will be able to determine the composition of the Appeal Court panel if Aregbesola appeals – and determine the judgment even before the appeal is heard.”
A judicial source disclosed to Saharareporters today that Abimbola Ogie, one of the four judges who reportedly endorsed the unanimous verdict, did not in fact append her signature to the judgment. “This is a highly unusual and curious development,” said the source.
A senior advocate of Nigeria who analyzed the majority decision insisted that the judges failed to address the substantive issues that the Appeal Court had ordered the tribunal to examine.
Another judicial source told Saharareporterporters, “It was obvious that parts of the judgment were altered at the last minute as the tribunal chairman was visibly ill at ease with some of the words and sentences he read while delivering the judgment,” adding, “the judge even used his pen to change some words or cancel others as he read the judgment in open court.”
A high-ranking PDP official told us that, 48 hours before the judgment was delivered, Mr. Oyinlola and his inner circle were still expecting the worst. In fact, the source revealed that, before Oyinlola and the PDP were able to influence the judgment, they were making plans to unleash PDP hoodlums to cause widespread arson and killings targeted at AC members in order to create the impression of “public displeasure” with a judgment that favored Aregbesola. Oyinlola was said to be so uneasy that he contacted former President Olusegun Obasanjo about help in finding a sympathetic panel of justices to hear his appeal in the event that he lost at the tribunal.
Our source added that the intervention Senator Iyiola Omisore, a PDP “stalwart” believed to have overseen the murder of former Attorney General Bola Ige, changed the game.
Omisore, who has wide experience in bribing judges, reportedly offered to broker the bribing of the tribunal members in exchange for Oyinlola’s outright support of his governorship ambition in 2011. Once Oyinlola indicated his acceptance of Omisore’s terms, the rogue senator immediately contacted the Deputy Governor of Gombe State (name????) who then helped to establish "access" to the Chairman of the tribunal who is from Yobe State. Our sources indicated that the tribunal chairman was easily won over once Omisore mentioned the range of cash the Oyinlola camp was willing to dole out. The chairman then promised to get the tribunal’s two Northern judges on board.
Our PDP source disclosed that no less than N3 billion exchanged hands in the ‘bribe for judgment’ deal. Half of the bribe, the source stated, was to be paid to the judges after the judgment.
A source revealed that the three northern judges became jittery about the negative impact of a sharply divided ruling. They moved fast to recruit Justice Ogie to their side and then persuaded another judge, Benedict Agabtan, the lone dissenting judge, not to read a minority judgment. Ogie and Agabtan “reluctantly” accepted the deal after they were also promised “a fair share of the bribe.”
In his response to the judgment, Aregbesola's counsel, Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan (SAN), described his client's petition as still “alive.”
However, he hinted darkly of the consequences of the series of judgments allegedly procured by the PDP. Uwensuyi-Edosomwan said it was better for the judiciary to give the right judgment now than to allow people to seek other means of getting the right verdict. He added that it was widely known that the Osun State gubernatorial election was one of the most rigged elections in 2007.
A lawyer in Osogbo, who once advised the Oyinlola team, disclosed that “they are even more certain now that they will be able to determine the composition of the Appeal Court panel if Aregbesola appeals – and determine the judgment even before the appeal is heard.”
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