A Tale of Two Nigerians, Ahmed and Walter

On Nov 3, 2016, the FG arraigned former Supreme Court Registrar Ahmed Saleh Gambo for sundry acts of corruption including receiving gratification totalling N74.4m from private contractors providing services to the Supreme Court between 2009 and 2016 including the sum of N10million from Willysdave Ltd, N2.4million from Welcon Nigeria Ltd, N16million from Dean Musa Nig. Ltd and N19million from Ababia Ventures Ltd.

The defendants (Gambo and two other senior directors) were also specifically alleged to have diverted N2.2billion belonging to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, into personal bank accounts domiciled at United Bank For Africa Plc with account number 2027642863.

However, in a twist,  on Feb 6, 2017, the FG mysteriously withdrew the charges against Saleh Gambo.

The prosecution counsel simply showed up in court one day and announced that the FG had withdrawn charges against Ahmed Saleh Gambo and the case was struck out.

Shortly after on July 1, 2017,the same Ahmed Gambo Saleh turns up as the Secretary of the National Judicial Council.

Ok erm, what did you say was Justice Walter Onnoghen’s ‘offence’ again?

A group wrote a petition to the Code of Conduct Bureau against the then CJN, he was suspended via a midnight ‘injunction’ from Code of Conduct Tribunal, his statement was obtained and he was arraigned for failing to declare three accounts which held N28m, $56,000 and £23,000.

 At the end of a drama, the CCT reversed its own earlier judicial precedent, assumed jurisdiction and convicted him, banning him for 10yrs.

His suspension, trial and conviction was superintended by Muhammadu Buhari (President), Abubakar Malami (AGF), Umar Danladi (CCT Chairman), Aliyu Umar (Prosecuting Counsel) and the major beneficiary is Tanko Mohammed (Acting CJN).

So that’s how the allegations of corruption against two Nigerians, Ahmed and Walter, were handled within the same corruption-fighting administration.

We know what is wrong with us in this country.

Ikechukwu Obi