SCANDAL: How Arthur Eze Paid $4million To Judges To Remove Gov. Ikpeazu

Chairman of Atlas Oranto Petroleum, Chief Arthur Eze allegedly paid

$4million in bribes to High Court Judges, Appeal Court Judges and some

senior Supreme Court Justices to remove Governor Okezie Ikpeazu whom he

vowed to “teach a lesson” for refusing to take his calls,

Pointblanknews.com investigation has revealed.
The huge sums were allegedly delivered through cronies of Arthur Eze to

Hon. Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, a former member of the House of

Representatives and husband of Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, President of the

Court of Appeal.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that Hon. Bulkachuwa allegedly collected

$1million and transmitted $200,000.00 to his wife, Justice Bulkachuwa

while $800,000.00 was shared among four members of the Court of Appeal.

Justice Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court allegedly

handled the “booty” on behalf of the “beneficiaries” of that cadre of the

bench.
Pointblanknews.com sources who pleaded anonymity, because of the

sensitivity of the scandal said Justice Okon Abang who delivered the

earlier Judgement removing Governor Ikpeazu, got paid an eye popping

$200,000 from Justice Auta.
Apart from the justices of the court of Appeal, some Federal High Court

Judges were also paid undisclosed amounts, while the largesse also

extended to some Supreme Court justices.
A Source confirmed that three very influential Supreme Court Justices

collected $500,000.00 each.
The revelations on how Arthur and certain powerful individuals got the

money delivered into the hands of Justices, would remain a slight on the

seriousness of President Muhammadu Buhari to push back on judicial

corruption and individual impunity, a serious manifestations of

institutional decay in Nigeria.
Chief Arthur Eze threw himself into the self-succession agenda of the late

military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha.
Like many other close associates of Abacha from the North, West and other

parts of the country, he was handed the mandate of nominating candidates

that would become the governors of the different state in the Eastern part

of Nigeria. Prior to the political race that was midwifed through what was

described by the late lawyer and politician, Chief Bola Ige, as the “five

leprous fingers”, the five rubber stamp political parties of the time,

Arthur Eze, becoming increasingly egocentric, took on the task of

sponsoring military officers, who would later become, state military

administrators. Through them, he was awarded phony contracts, the proceeds

diverted.
In the present dispensation, he had sought to continue as the political

godfather of Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state. He had

committed to donating a total sum of one hundred million naira towards the

Governor's election but he was only able to come up with about N10million,

pointblanknews.com gathered.
Pointblanknews.com sources said that Arthur Eze had thought that he would

use the opportunity of financial contributions to pocket Ikpeazu. But when

Ikpeazu could not be compromised, the businessman felt his thought of

personally commandeering the funds of Abia would also perish.

Once Alex Otti of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, whom Arthur

Eze had supported lost out, he found a new ally in Uche Ogah.

Arthur Eze, according to Pointblanknews.com investigation executed a major

move by commissioning a team of lawyers who studied an original suit

instituted by Barrister Friday Nwosu, a lawyer seeking to technically undo

the political works of Governor Ikpeazu on the ground of tendering false

tax clearance.
The courts where the papers by Mr. Nwosu were filed deliberately

frustrated the process. However, the man who stood close to play the

willing servant for the ploy of Arthur Eze, Uche Ogah sprang out of the

blues and used the papers from Barrister Nwosu to dig the ground under the

foot of Ikpeazu in the law court.
Arthur Eze had allegedly devoted a sum of $4m to the vast war chest,

largely through the courts, in order to remove Governor Ikpeazu. And for

him, it was not going to be difficult, since he had made a close contact

with General Muhammadu Buhari, whose multi-billion-naira agency, Petroleum

Trust Fund, (PTF) was a major financial machine for funding Abacha's

ambition in the 1990s. Eze was said to have allegedly promised Aso Rock

that he should be supported in an effort to “knock sense into the heads of

South-Easterners”.
According to some of our sources, the ambition of the Muhammadu Buhari

political movement to take over the Eastern part had found a matching mate

in the ambition of Eze for the financial take-over of the East.

In the evil plot to completely take over the treasury of Abia state and

enjoy contract monopoly in the state after Uche Ogah must have been

fraudulently installed by judicial over-reach, Judges and Justices are

said to be proceeding with caution in the handling of the matter because

they want to be sure that everything and the details of money movement has

not leaked to avail the possible hoopla that could arise if the secret

leaks to the public.
The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, had last week reserved judgment

in the appeal by Ikpeazu, where he is challenging the ruling of the

Federal High Court, Abuja, which sacked him as governor of the state.

After listening to all parties involved in the matter, a five-man panel of

Justices of the appellate court led by Justice Morenike Ogunwumiju,

deferred the matter to a date yet to be fixed, as at the time of filing

this report.
Arthur Eze is a man with huge ego. He has often paraded himself as both a

traditional kingmaker and an anointer of political office holders. He was

instrumental to fielding so many military officers as political office

holders.
Although, Igbos by tradition are republicans, the paramount stools created

for colonial indirect rule and tax administration has become so serious

for him in independent Nigeria, that he calls himself the Eze of Ukpor, a

dormain in Anambra state. Throwing titles, money and influence around, he

often benefit from contracts that are signed and never executed.

In 1991, he was awarded the contract for the purchase and installation of

a transmitter for old Anambra State Broadcasting Corporation, through his

Triax limited in the sum of $774.95m. He collected the money but never

executed the contract.
Around the same period, using his military contacts, he was awarded

another contract in respect of equipment for Broadcasting Corporation of

Oyo State (BCOS) in the sum of N85m. He abandoned the contract.

Similarly, he sweet talked the administration in Anambra state into

securing an African Development Bank loan for rural electrification

project in the sum of $115m.
In Anambra, Nanze limited, his company got a job for rural water supply,

scope included borehole extension scheme, pipeline extension, reservoir

maintenance. Contract sum N142,845,910 = $14,338,000 and N28,569,182. From

February 12, 1992 later increased by $2,353,784 and $5,182,950 on February

2nd, 1999.
The consultants to the project were DHV of Nigeria and Netherlands.

Contract executed with a loan obtained by Anambra from ADB, between August

1995, a total of $4,708,112 and $9,381,149 was paid to Nanze by ADB as

loan for Anambra state government. The project has never materialized. The

state has since then been blacklisted by ADB
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