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Why was Hon. Justice Effiong David Idiong, Akwa Ibom State Chief Judge spared the big rod when four of the five Judges he allegedly bribed on behalf of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Victor Attah were dismissed from judicial service? For those who followed with dismay, the spectacular story of how the Election Tribunal Justices empanelled to decide election petitions in Akwa Ibom State in 2003 were bribed, and how the hammer fell on almost everyone connected with the scandal, many questions begged to be answered concerning why Justice Idiong, the Chief Judge was let off.

Now, that has changed overnight. Someone has been brooding over what many may have perceived, rightly or wrongly, as unequal justice among equals. Testimonies have now emerged, providing, on its face, relatively strong circumstantial evidence tending to show that Hon. Justice Idiong could have facilitated the bribe-giving transactions that scandalized the Judiciary and brought the careers of five judges to an appalling end. Will Justice Effiong David Idiong's career end the same way?

“The key question was, how did Hon. Justice Effiong David Idiong escape the wrath? He had been named in virtually all the literature concerning the bribery”

For Justice Effiong David Idiong, this will perhaps be his last big fight, seeing that, barring unforeseen circumstances, he would retire in a little over 2 years from now, but more importantly, this is perhaps the fight of his life for what will define the legacy of his career. But he is showing that he is ready to do battle, and not on the adversary's terms alone, but his also. The prognosis however, doesn't look good for him.

In Retrospect: Justice Idiong is Named in Major Judicial Corruption Expose the key question was, how did Hon. Justice Effiong David Idiong escape the wrath? He had been named in virtually all the literature concerning the bribery. When Access to Justice/The Justice Observatory Journal wrote to the NJC asking why it cleared Hon. Justice Idiong over the bribery, the NJC replied that it “gave the Chief Judge benefit of the doubt, as it was his word that was against that of the petitioner. There was no other evidence”.

The New Evidences

The ICPC Chair is saying no, and is working to reverse that outcome. Justice Mustapha Akanbi is a member of the National Judicial Council, and knows exactly what the inside story is of how Justice Idiong got off the hook. That inside story, as the NJC told Access to Justice, is the absence of corroborative evidence. Justice Akanbi has gone beyond that handicap and now says he has found something that will narrow the doubts. His trump card is one Habu Sarlau Gomba, a driver in the service of the Taraba State Government. Gomba, at the material time, was driver to Khadi Tanimu Mahmud, a member of the Justice Adamu's Akwa Ibom Election Petition Tribunal. Gomba's statement to the ICPC reads thus:

“In the fourth month of 2003, I cannot remember the exact date Khadi Tanimu Mahmud and I went for election to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to work. They went for election tribunal. We spent up to 3 months there working. The justices were five, M. M. Adamu who was Chairman of the Tribunal, and Justice Ahura, Justice Alelagu (sic) and Khadi Tanimu, the fifth was a Chief Magistrate, I have forgotten his name. All of us together with the justices we stayed in one hotel at Uyo but I have forgotten its name. …

… I was lying down in the night then Madam (Justice M. M. Adamu) called me on the phone in my room she said I should come and follow them. The five justices boarded a Peugeot 504 station wagon and drove off, and I followed them driving 306 me alone behind (sic). We went to one house, I was told it was the house of the CJ of Akwa Ibom State. When we reached the CJ's house Madam and the other justices went inside, me I (sic) stayed outside in the car. After about one hour or two someone came from inside the CJ's house and told me to turn the car, so I turned the car and brought the rear to the entrance of the garage then the man came with bags of the “Ghana must-Go” type medium sizes, five of them and he asked me to open the boot then he loaded the five bags in. I do not know what was in the bags. After he has finished putting them in the boot of my car I closed the boot then returned the car to its former position. After a short while, the five justices came out and entered into the wagon and proceeded and I again followed them alone in the 306, we went back to our hotel.

“After about one hour or two someone came from inside the CJ's house and told me to turn the car, so I turned the car and brought the rear to the entrance of the garage then the man came with bags of the “Ghana must-Go” type medium sizes, five of them and he asked me to open the boot then he loaded the five bags in”

"Judicial accountability is not exercised in a vacuum. Judges must operate within rules and in accordance with their oath of office which reins them back from thinking that they can do anything they like” (TI Source Book 2000: 60)

A primary indicator that corruption is spiraling out of control is a dysfunctional judicial system” (TI Source Book 2000: 61).

When we got there, I was about to open the boot when Madam, that is M. M. Adamu called me and said I should not open it yet she said I should park the car well and leave it there, that is within the hotel premises. She said when everyone in the hotel had gone to sleep I should pack the Ghana-must-Gos to her room. At that time that she was telling me this, the other justices had gone to their rooms. I locked the car and went to the room where I stay with Orderly Umaru and I laid down. When it was well into the night, I cannot remember the exact time, I went and packed the Ghana-must-Go bags, five of them, to Madam's room, I knocked her door, I woke her up, she opened the door, I packed the bags inside her room and kept them there. From there I went back to my room and slept.

After about two or three week of our visit to the CJ's house, we were in the court, the justices were inside, I was sitting outside as I do not understand court English, I heard people saying outside the court that the Justices were given money that even lawyers showed photograph in the court, of the children of Justice Ahura with money

spread around them. The talks continued up to the time the justices rose and came out of the court and we went back to the hotel. After that, a few days remaining to the delivery of the judgment my boss Khadi Tanimu received a phone call from home that his Mallam had died. So he took permission from Madam and she allowed us, we returned home to Jalingo the case was finished in our absence, we had already returned to Taraba. And we have since not gone back to Uyo.”

Justice Idiong Protests Innocence, ICPC Motives

But Justice Idiong denies the allegations. In response to questions about his involvement in the bribery of the Tribunal Judges at his ICPC interrogation, he reportedly protested to Mustapha Akanbi, that he [Justice Idiong] had been “exonerated” by the National Judicial Council (NJC). Perhaps Justice Idiong did not correctly understand the import of the NJC's position, because as soon as he said that, ICPC Chair, Justice Akanbi reportedly sneered and retorted “we have the NJC report here” which probably meant that the NJC, in Justice Akanbi's view did not “exonerate” him. Justice Idiong was to later accuse Justice Akanbi of abusing his position as a member of the NJC by “using information and documents given to him as member of the NJC to prosecute and embarrass the plaintiff in an attempt to bolster the image of the zero performance outfit and a total waste of public funds that is the ICPC.”

Before the fireworks got underway, Justice Idiong's statement to the ICPC on April 19th 2004, was as follows; [of the Tribunal] came on a visit to me. They came between 6 pm and 7pm. My wife prepared a meal for them and after the entertainment they left for the hotel. I gave them no parting gifts as alleged.

I visited the hotel where the members stayed twice. The first one was to ask them whether they saw the publication in Ibom Voice alleging that the sum of N60m was brought to them by the government but that they rejected the offer, I encouraged them to do their work and not get distracted by the publication. This meeting took place in the open restaurant of the hotel. The second visit was on the complaint of the chairman concerning the security of the hotel, which, she said, was porous. On 28/5/2004 my wife and I went to Calabar to solve a family problem, I returned to Uyo on 29/5/2004 and carried the swearing-in of the Governor.

I repeat that on the date 13/5/2004 when I entertained the members of the tribunal, I did not give them nor did they carry out money in “Ghana must go” bags from my house. The visit of 13/5/04 was not attended by all the tribunal members, four attended leaving out one. I cannot remember the names of those who came to me on 13/5/04 when I entertained them.”

After making the statement, Justice Idiong was requested to return again the following month to “make further explanation on the damaging information against him.” On May the 6th, Justice Idiong did not turn up, asserting he was ill. However, by this time, his mood had changed and consternation about what the ICPC planned to do with him on the return date had enveloped him. He said later in affidavit statements that Justice Akanbi had “… concluded arrangements to apprehend and detain me on 6th May 2004 and to parade me as a criminal (a serving Chief Judge of one of the States of Nigeria).” Justice Idiong sought legal reprieve from the Federal High Court Abuja, asking the Court to stop the ICPC from harassing him with any criminal charges in connection with the bribery allegations. He accused the ICPC chair of “nursing a vicious grudge against me for reasons I do not know….” But the Federal High Court declined. In a ruling of 25th January 2005, Justice Stephen Jonah Adah said that since the NJC is not a court of law that has power to try offenders, its determinations cannot act as a bar to criminal proceedings. On a finding that there was no reasonable cause of action before it, the court struck out Justice Idiong's lawsuit.

A Fate in the Balance …

With the legal challenge out of the way, Justice Akanbi's ICPC will seize the ground – that is, if Justice Idiong does not use appeal court processes to buy time and clobber the effort. Time enough for Justice Akanbi to finish with his term as ICPC chair, and perhaps exit the stage for another with less personal involvement in, and commitment to resolving what Justice Akanbi perceives as an incomplete rendition of the justice integrity anthem for all persons implicated in the Akwa Ibom Election Tribunal corruption saga.

“A corrupt judge is more harmful to society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowed street. He can be restrained physically. But a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation of the society…while still referred to as ‘honourable'” – Hon. Justice S.O. Uwaifo (speech given at the special session of the Supreme Court on 24th January, 2005)

“I am not saying all the nearly one thousand judges are saints. There may be one , two or three – you can never know – who, from what we have seen, may be bad eggs; they may be prepared to receive bribe” – Hon Justice M. Uwais, extract of an interview granted The Justinian Magazine and published in February, 2005.