Former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has taken a swipe at the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, over the lavish feast he reportedly gave the outgoing President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, in Port Harcourt.
In a statement sent to The Legend, Eze described the event as an inducement of the judiciary and an unsolicited jamboree that will only waste the God-given resources of the people of Rivers State.
Said he, “sadly and unfortunately Governor Wike could embark on such unsolicited jamboree while the salaries and pensions to Civil Servant and Pensioners are kept in the cool. This act is nothing but exhibition of corruption in the Executive arm of the government.”
Eze warned judges to know that most Nigerians know the strong link between Wike and most judges, and that he is the bridge between his party and judges.
“The judges must know that this perception, wrong or right, is very strong in the social sphere and in the polity.
According to the party stalwart, “There is nothing wrong in organizing a banquet, especially for Justice Bulkachhwa, but there was never a time the Hon. Justice supplicated for one. There is more to the event than meets the eyes, coming from a political desperado and an interloper, lacking in sincerity.”
He warned the judges to know that Wike is someone who does not put cash on any enterprise without definite benefit, adding that they must remember that when electoral officers told him how difficult the task he gave them to do was, that he ordered them to “be prepared to refund his money.”
Eze said the Governor must be hiding under the guise of “a State Banquet”, but that it is a gimmick to achieve some dishonest purposes.
He however expressed optimism that the Governor’s plans will turn out futile.
Recall that the outgoing President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Bulkachuwa, was in Port Harcourt a week ago as part of the processes for her bowing out, having attained the retirement age of 70.
In same statement, however, Chief Eze congratulated the retiring Justice and commended her for serving the country meritoriously.
He nevertheless argued that, “Judicial officers must be wary of being inveigled into a situation in which they find themselves becoming partisan agents of Gov. Wike, who has become an arch enemy of justice, in the pursuit of his selfish schemes and private vendetta.”
Eze’s counseled judicial officers to distance themselves from politicians like Wike who recently boasted that he won his case at the Supreme Court in the 2015 gubernatorial election because a particular political leader from Rivers State “always tells him (Wike) who to meet in the Judiciary and he obeys and that won him his Supreme Court case.”
He further advised that any Judicial officer who wants to keep his integrity to maintain a very long distance from Wike, because he is capable of corrupting and damaging any decent and sane leader.
.He alleged that, “today, Courts continue to grant unjustifiable injunctions against Rivers APC from holding its congresses in order to elect officers to conduct its affairs in the State. Conducting congresses is an internal affair of political parties, but some desperate politicians who hate opposition use the courts to keep APC Chapter in Rivers State in a perpetual coma.
“For Wike to state that the Executive and Legislative arms of Government are far more corrupt than the Judiciary, but that they are the arms that criticise the Judiciary all the time, is an invitation to the Chief Justice of the Federation to investigate and find out from Wike the extent of corruption in the Judiciary and arrest it because a corrupt Judiciary is dangerous and cancerous to our nascent democracy.”
Eze also alleged that the governor uses a gathering of judges to arrange things and seal deals, as well as appoint next set of contacts in the Judiciary.
“This is why the retiring Bulkachuwa and all the judges that attended the tainted feast should be very cautious because the world is watching. Wike’s antics cannot be disguised forever,” he emphasized.