- He’s lying, he should petition NJC – Judge
The leader of the Biafran Independent Movement and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Mr. Ralph Uwazuruike, has accused a High Court judge in Imo State, Justice Ken Orjiako of demanding N3 million bribe from him in order to give judgment in his favour.
Uwazuruike, who is also a lawyer, alleged, while speaking with journalists in Owerri, the Imo State capital, that Justice Orjiako ordered his arrest and imprisonment because he refused to give him the sum of N3 million he (the judge) demanded as bribe over a case concerning a property he acquired in 2014 at Works Layout in Owerri.
The landed property was sold to Uwazuruike by one Chief Eddy Ononuju, who is based in London, for N20million.
Uwazuruike disclosed that he had to sell off his property at the World Bank area of Owerri for N8million to enable him to pay the N20million demanded by Ononuju for the property.
The MASSOB leader said after making the full payment for the property, the lawyer to Ononuju, Mr. Chigozie Iheama, demanded N2million payment from him as 10 per cent agency fees.
He said he, however, refused to pay the lawyer the N2million, saying Iheama should have collected his agency fees from his client, Ononuju, who engaged his services.
Uwazuruike added that he had his own agent, who he was going to pay 10 per cent of agency fees for the purchase of the property.
The MASSOB leader explained that after paying for the property and taking possession, Iheama went behind to put another person on the land to farm, adding that to avoid bloodshed, he sued the lawyer at the Owerri High Court.
Uwazuruike said when he discovered that the case, which was purely a civil matter before Justice Florence Duruohakwe, could turn against him, he requested for its transfer to another judge.
He said rather than transferring the matter back to the Chief Judge of the state for re-assignment, Justice Duruohakwe, on his own, transferred the matter to Justice Ken Orjiakor.
The MASSOB leader, however, accused Justice Orjiakor of bias.
“I have not seen where a judge continues in a matter where he is accused of bias, where he insists he must jail me before the end of the matter. As I speak to you now, Justice Orjiakor has ordered that the Imo State Commissioner of Police should arrest and detain me, and produce me at the next sitting on November 14, 2017,” he alleged.
According to him, although the rulings of the court had been appealed at the Court of Appeal, Justice Orjiakor insisted he would continue with the matter, rather than grant a stay of proceedings as is the normal practice.
The twist in the matter, according to him, was a middle man, Ike Nwabueze, who he said, after listening to his complaints, promised to speak with the judge.
The MASSOB leader said after the meetings, Nwabueze said Justice Orjiakor demanded N3million payment; and another N3.9million for the agent (Iheama), but which he refused.
Uwazuruike, who disclosed he had petitioned the National Judicial Council over the judge’s alleged conduct, said Iheama’s lawyer, Dr C.K Okorie, employed all sorts of illegalities in the case and wondered how a civil matter he filed as a plaintiff had turned and he was now a defendant risking arrest and detention.
Nwabueze, said to have mediated between Uwazuruike and Iheama, noted that he came into the matter through a friend.
“I came into the matter to settle the parties, but when I saw that Uwazuruike and Iheama were not ready to shift ground, I opted out of the settlement. There was no time I had any discussion with Justice Orjiako to collect any money for him from Uwazuruike. Uwazuruike only said that to drag the image of the judge to the mud,” he said.
Justice Orjiakor, in his response to the allegation, told our correspondent on the phone that Uwazuruike was a confused person, daring him to report him to the NJC.
“I don’t know what Uwazururike is talking about; I don’t have to be responding to him on the pages of newspapers. If he feels I did anything, let him forward a petition to NJC. I have nothing to do with what he alleges. It cannot happen now and not in my life time,” the high court judge said.
