The All Progressives Congress (APC) Akwa Ibom State, has kicked against the Judgment delivered last Wednesday by Justice Goddy Anuhihu which affirmed the victory of former governor of the State, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio in the last National Assembly election in the State, alleging that the former governor bought the Judgement.

The APC described the verdict by Justice Goddy Anunihu as a miscarriage of justice.

The opposition party in Akwa Ibom wondered why Justice Goddy Anunihu-led Panel would dismiss the petition of its APC candidate for the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial district, Chief Inibehe Okori notwithstanding the glaring exhibits, which pointed to the brutal rigging of the National Assembly election in favour of the former governor.

The party pointed towards the case of excessive votes recorded in favour of the PDP candidate in which case the total votes cast was put at 444, 505 as against the 205, 519 accredited voters for the election.

It said it was out of place for Justice Anunihu to conclude that it was a ‘mistake’ that Akpabio contested the election with his candidacy recorded in a Senatorial District totally different from where he hails from.

Text of the press statement by the APC read, “The 2015 general elections in Akwa Ibom State WERE adjudged by national and International observers as electoral aberration unknown to civilization.

“Indeed, everything that played out in the violent and fraudulent elections was clinically executed in consonance with the character and corrupt disposition of Godswill Obot Akpabio.

“We instructively recall that while addressing an assembly of 850 local “election monitors” at a tent in the Government House residence in 2011, Mr. Godswill Akpabio had bragged that: “Once the winner [of a governorship election] has been announced in Nigeria, it is now your word against the world.

“INEC cannot help you again, even in the Tribunal. That means you will drag from the first Tribunal to the High Court; from the High Court to the Court of Appeal; from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court and if you know the Nigerian judicial system, once the Governor is announced, before the Supreme Court finishes listening to the opposition case, our tenure as a Governor has finished.

“I am telling you the truth. That is why it was very important [to do whatever is necessary] to win this first time”.

“This has always been Godswill Akpabio’s mindset and operating principle, depicting his deep knowledge of, disdain for and readiness, to use the resources at his disposal to corrupt and manipulate the judiciary to achieve his inordinate greed, “no matter whose ox is gored.”

“Immediately after the election petition tribunals started their work, it was common knowledge in Akwa Ibom State that an ‘umbrella payment’ had been made for petitions against PDP before the Tribunal(s) by Godswill Akpabio.

“The judgment of Wednesday, 14th October, 2015, for Godswill Obot Akpabio is a glaring confirmation of the widely held opinion that Mr. Godswill Akpabio had bought justice; and it also showcases the fact that Godswill Akpabio’s corruption tactics were deployed on and found a willing receptacle in the Justice Goddy Anunihu Panel in respect of all the APC cases before it.

“Justice Anunihu, who has a notorious history of judicial impropriety, was discovered to have had early contacts and meetings with Godswill Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel in Lagos at the initial empanelment of the Tribunals. Close aides and associates of Godswill Akpabio openly announced the successful compromise of Justice Anunihu and the imminence of the dismissal of the election petition against Godswill Akpabio at the countdown to the delivery of the judgment of last Wednesday.

“The first to announce the “sealing of the deal” was Paul Ekpo, the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ), who assured his members in a meeting in Uyo that it was “all over.”

“Next, between 10 and 11 am on 8 October, 2015, Udom Emmanuel telephoned the Speaker, Aniekan Uko, and asked him to compile and forward to him (Udom Emmanuel) for onward delivery to Justice Anunihu whom he, Udom Emmanuel, and Godswill Akpabio had met and finished all arrangements concerning the election petitions against PDP candidates pending before him (Justice Anunihu). We challenge the security agents to investigate this.

“On Saturday, 10 October, 2015, Emmanuel Inyangetor, the Personal Assistant to Godswill Akpabio, in answer to a casual inquiry on the imminent judgment, impudently boasted at the Transcorp Hilton that Godswill Akpabio had “finished everything with the Panel Chairman.”

“The same Emmanuel Inyangetor in the morning of Wednesday, 14 October confirmed that the draft copy of the judgment expected to be delivered that day had been delivered by Justice Anunihu to Godswill Akpabio for vetting, and this accounted for Godswill Akpabio’s late arrival at the Senate for the screening of the ministerial nominees at about 1. 30 pm and the contemporaneous arrival of the Justice Anunihu’s Election Petition Panel at Dutse Alhaji, the Tribunal venue.

“Little wonder Justice Anunihu had enormous difficulties reading the text of the judgment purportedly written by him.

“Prior to the arrival of Justice Anunihu and company, the PDP State Chairman, Paul Ekpo, came into the court hall, shouted the PDP slogan and announced that ‘it was over!’ The preparation for the favourable judgment was further demonstrated in the large turnout of the PDP supporters led by Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, Godswill Akpabio’s wife, who came with uniformed entourage, brass band and cultural troupes!

“The leadership of the APC in Akwa Ibom State feels the deep frustrations and pains of our people who had shown enormous confidence in the judiciary, only to realize that it is still business as usual.

“We sympathize with our people, who had hoped to redress the grave wrongs done them at the March 28 and April 11, 2015, general elections through the judicial system. We never reckoned that the judiciary could, once more, and in this anti-corruption regime, lend itself to the criminal charade that was the election in Akwa Ibom state.

“With the demonstrated and irrefutable compromise of Justice Anunihu, the compilation of election petitions already earmarked for dismissal on the strength of Justice Anunihu’s compromise, we, as a Party, hereby call on all the remaining matters to be delivered to the beneficiaries of the corrupt enterprise between Justice Anunihu, the judicial corruption arrangee, and Godswill Akpabio, the undisputed image of corruption in Nigeria.

“At this stage, the All Progressive Congress in Akwa Ibom State call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Federal Government and the people of Nigeria to take special notice of what stolen funds in the hands of ultra ambitious corrupt individuals could mean to the national security, stability of the country and the sanctity of its institutions.

“It was the stolen funds of our state that was used to bribe electoral umpires, especially the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state to subvert the will of the people. It was, indeed, the stolen funds of Akwa Ibom state that was used to turn a civic responsibility like an election into a killing field; a one sided battle where our people were simply over-run by thugs, accomplice security agencies, brigands, who carted away ballot boxes, election materials, murdered our people and ensured that no election held anywhere in the state.

“It is sad that the forces of darkness that rode roughshod over the state and her economy for eight years have continued to use the funds of the state stolen from the people to perpetrate all manner of evil against the state.

“With the unbecomingly illogical and curious verdict of Justice Goddy Anunihu, we have seen the corruption of the Nigerian judiciary by the agents of Darkness. We want to use this occasion to loudly advise Nigerians and especially the APC Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari that if immediate steps are not taken, as the next target, the stolen trillions of Naira will be used to infiltrate and deadly weaken the anti-corruption crusade of the government, if not actually torpedo it.

“We state that no matter how much we sing of anti-corruption, these vile characters would still continue to compromise our institutions and make nonsense of our new national consciousness, if they are not made to account for their crimes.

“Finally, the APC in Akwa Ibom state end this address by reminding Nigerians of the eternal words of our President: IF WE DO NOT KILL CORRUPTION, CORRUPTION WILL KILL US.

“We believe that the starting point is to check those with so much stolen funds and who are now walking with arrogant swag, corrupting everyone and institution they enter and boasting of their invincibility”.