Bayo Ojo! Who is Bayo Ojo? The name alone indicates that the man is not and could never be an indigene of Akwa Ibom State. But what many people in Akwa Ibom State may not know is that Bayo Ojo is the individual who is helping and aiding devil Godwill Akpabio to steal billions of the resources that belong to them. The funny thing is that Akpabio really believes that no one knows about his scheme with Bayo Ojo, which involves billions of naira being laundered using the pretense of legal fees as a conduit.
Bayo Ojo is one of those crooked and unethical lawyers who, over the years, have used his connections to make big money by giving representations to rogue State Governors, such as Godswill Akpabio. Bayo Ojo served as an Attorney General in the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo. During his term in Obasanjo’s Government, Bayo Ojo was known to be an Attorney General who had no respect for rulings issued by courts. When Obasanjo nominated him as Attorney General, several lawyers protested because of the administrative rule in place at the time, which stated that any lawyer who served as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association could not be appointed to serve as Attorney General. Experts say Bayo Ojo persuaded Obasanjo to bend the rule in his favor.
When he left the administration of Obasanjo, Bayo Ojo was hired by Godswill Akpabio as his lawyer. His representation helped Akpabio secure the controversial 86 oil-wells from River State, a deal which is now costing the people of Akwa Ibom State billions because the Supreme Court eventually had to return the oil wells to the River State Government. Now, Akwa Ibom State is making monthly payments, plus interest, of at least N10 billion to the Government of Rivers State; this is a part of another reason why Akwa Ibom State does not have the money to pay teachers and other Government employees for the past three months or more.
Moving on....
With the billions naira he made from Godswill Akpabio, in the form of legal fees and outright gift, Bayo Ojo thought he was rich enough to be like his boss, Godswill Akpabio. When he saw how Akpabio stole billions and billions of the people’s money, Bayo Ojo thought he could do the same thing in his own State by being a governor. During the 2011 Governorship Election, Bayo Ojo contested. That is when he found out exactly how the people of his own State felt about him as a leader. He did not even make it past the Primary level. The people of his own State did not consider that Bayo Ojo was valuable enough to lead them as their governor; he was rejected, hands down. Analysts say he did not even receive as much as one-tenth of one percent of the total votes in his home State. Bayo Ojo is from Kogi State.
With such a dismal failure in the election, and with his bank account depleted, Bayo Ojo quickly returned to Akpabio for more money, using the usual camouflage of legal representation as a conduit. Inside sources have confirmed that Akpabio used Bayo Ojo as a middle man to negotiate for the money that was used in bribing the Election Tribunal judges, both in Uyo and Calabar.
According to inside sources, when the dispute of the governorship election was returned by the Supreme Court for trial in Uyo, Akpabio advised Bayo Ojo to get into his usual motion of connecting with contacts that will help him (Akpabio) to do what he knows best; bribe the Tribunal judges. This time around, inside sources say Bayo met with stumbling blocks. None of Bayo Ojo’s contacts wanted to mess with any matter which connects with Godswill Akpabio, because of top-level speculations that Nigeria‘s security agencies have compiled dossiers on Akpabio and that what the agencies are waiting for is for Akpabio to leave the office, which will clear the legal hurdle for his immediate arrest for various crimes, including money laundering, assassinations, kidnappings, and forgery (as in forging a Certificate of Clearance).
As a last resort, about a couple of weeks ago, Bayo Ojo wrote a letter to the President of the Nigeria’s Court of Appeal. The letter is actually a petition, asking the President of the Court to send back to Akwa Ibom State the same three judges that had unanimously voted to dismiss the governorship election of Senator Akpan Udoedehe versus Godswill Akpabio on technical grounds. Lawyers say the legal parlance for what Bayo Ojo is doing is referred to as “forum shopping”; a process where defense lawyers shop around for a judge who will be sympathetic to the case of his or her clients.
When the Supreme Court sent the matter of Akwa Ibom State governorship dispute back to the Tribunal in Uyo for trial, the connotations were very clear; the people, through the judiciary process, must be given the opportunity to review all the available evidence and decide which of the two candidates won the last gubernatorial election. But, Bayo Ojo is advising Godswill Akpabio to ignore the wishes of the people by recommending to Akpabio that the same corrupt three men, who took money from Akpabio and ran away, without even waiting to sign the documents that contained their hasty decisions, should be sent back to listen to the same issue they declared as not worth a hearing in the court of law, is nothing but an insult to the people of Akwa Ibom State and a slap on the judicial process of Nigeria. The people of Akwa Ibom State should rise up and condemn such act, in the strongest of terms.
This is also the opportunity to let Godswill Akpabio know that the people are fed up with his nonsense. The people are tired of all the wanton waste and the arrogant sharing of their resources with outsiders that have no legal right or authority to receive the people‘s money in the way Godswill Akpabio is giving them. The people are tired of being poor in a State which is known to be the richest in Nigeria. The people are tired of going to bed hungry because of not being paid their wages and salaries. It is very dehumanizing to go to work every day, then at the end of the month a worker looks at the faces of his or her children and dependants and say “well, guess what, I can’t buy food because I am not paid.” What is the essence of working if a worker cannot take care of the basic needs of his or her family?
The time to send Akpabio packing is now. Akpabio must go and Akpabio will go; it’s only a matter of time.
Written by
Ikpafak Thompson Essien
A native of Ibibio nation of Ubium Republic extraction, now living in the safe and beautiful city of Portland, Oregon, where no AKPF, ADUMA, ADV, and Akwa Ibom State politicians can reach.
No comments:
Post a Comment