FEMI FALANA, ODINKALU, DEBUNK SAHARAREPORTERS BRIBERY STORY IN AL-MUSTAPHA JUDGMENT

Nigerians woke up this morning to an accusation on the notorious gossip site, saharareporters.com, to the effect that the Jonathan administration had procured the judgment that set former Chief Security Officer to Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapaha, free via a $2 million bribe to the presiding judge, Justice Amina Augie. Not done with this allegation, saharareports alleged that the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, wrote the judgment. All this was done by President Jonathan in order to pave the way for his 2015 reelection which according to the site was going to be impossible if Al-Mustapha remained in jail per a prophesy from renowned seer, T.B. Joshua.

Saharareporters did not provide any evidence to back up its claims beyond stating that it got the information from an unnamed ‘source’!

However, NaijaPundit’s investigations have established that the saharareporters story is untrue and malicious. We have seen documents from both Chidi Anselm Odinkalu and Femi Falana which indicate that the story is a pack of lies.

Femi Falana revealed that rather than bribery as alleged by saharareporters.com, the Al-Mustapaha case was lost "due to shoddy investigation and procedural irresponsibility". It is instructive that the prosecution of the case was handled by the Lagos State ministry of Justice which is controlled by the Action Congress of Nigeria and not the Federal Ministry of Justice which is controlled by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

NaijaPundit exclusively brings you two emails from both Professor Odinkalu and renowned Human Rights Activist and foremost lawyer, Femi Falana (a known critic of the Jonathan administration) which put the lie to the saharareporters story;

The email below is from Femi Falana;

> From: falana*****yahoo.com
> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:33:07 +0000
>
> Dear Carol,
>
> In a commendable manner, efforts were made by some of our colleagues to comment on the judgment of the Court of Appeal through this medium. I think that was last week.
>
> That should have continued instead of descending to the scandalous level of impugning the integrity of judges and lawyers over a case that was painfully lost due to shoddy investigation and procedural irresponsibility. For instance, why was Sergeant Rogers Jabila not turned into a hostile witness by the prosecution when he began to retract his copious confessional statements?
>
> Although there are disagreeable aspects of the judgment which have been highlighted in this medium it is difficult to dismiss the reasoning and conclusion of the Court of Appeal on the acquittal of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan.
>
> In another clime the legal profession would have wished to find out why the cases of those who were charged with the brutal assassination of Pa Alfred Rewane, Chief Bola Ige, Mrs Kudirat Abiola et al were all discharged and acquitted. Most of the on-going cases of murder involving rich suspects are bound to end the same way. It is a neo-colonial State that is on the verge of total collapse. The ruling class is just pretending to run a modern State.
> It is a banana republic.
>
> There are no measures in place to equip the investigation departments of the police or improve the skills of prosecutors. Witnesses are not protected by the system. Hence it is easy for defendants who are rich to bribe or scare potential witnesses from testifying for the prosecution.
>
> In the 2013 federal budget the sum of N300 bn was earmarked for the police. Out of that sum N293 bn goes for recurrent expenditure while the remaining N7 bn will service 10,515 police stations and posts, police colleges,laboratories etc as well as corruption. Where is the fund for investigation? It is collected from complainants or suspects or from both. At the end of the day reports of investigation are tailored in favour of the highest bidders. Such dubious reports are then forwarded to the office of the DPP for legal advice and possible prosecution!
>
> FF
>
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN



The email below is from Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu;

> From: ch******@hotmail.com

> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:15:24 +0000
> Subject: Re: [OurCountryNigeria] The Scheme That Freed Al-Mustapha - SR
>
> IBK,
>
> Let me try and understand you. It is ok to accuse judges of taking bribes but not ok to read their judgments in order to be informed about what we're talking about;
>
> it is ok to believe allegations circulated by a web-based publication but a judgment is "inauthentic";
>
> it is ok for the ICTR to share its judgments by e-mail but only those that wish to "destroy Nigeria" can do that here. What else?
>
> IBK, my bother, no vex, joo: how many CTCs of judgments did you process in the ICTR? How many have you processed in England? Why is what is good for the climes in which you practice bad for us? White people can do it but if blacks do it it must be because we're corrupt? If a white person said that to me, I'd have dumped on them. But...
>
> Well, I circulated the judgment of the Kenyan Supreme Court on the elections the day it was given. No one said I shared money with any of the judges or parties nor asked about CTC - and by the way I have Long standing personal relationships with all the parties in the Kenyan case and all but one of the judges in the case. I shared the judgments of the South African Courts on Silk from High Court to the Supreme Court of Appeals, no on asked bothered to allege they were inauthentic. I could go on: What does consistency matter to us?
>
> Chidi.
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
>
> -----Original Message

Source: http://www.naijapundit.com/news/femi-falana-odinkalu-debunk-saharareporters-bribery-story-in-al-mustapha-judgment

Obviously sahara is an attention seeking publicity. Only a fool would believe a story like that.

They should leave TBJ out please. For my sake. Abeg

I don't blame Sahara Reporters, I rather blame people that take them serious.

Even a one year old kid knows that the judgement is another case of "army arrangement "