According to Henry Ward Beecher, “Take all the robes of all the good judges that have ever lived on the face of the earth, and they would not be large enough to cover the iniquity of one corrupt judge.”
Can Nigerians imagine the magnitude of Justice John Inyang Okoro’s iniquity in legalising certificate forgery, enthroning criminality as a veritable pathway for one becoming the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and ignoble disregard of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
In the words of retired Justice of Supreme Court Justice Samson Uwaifo and speaking with the like of Justice John Inyang Okoro in mind: “I won’t say Nigeria judiciary is corrupt, but it cannot be denied that there are some corrupt judges. A corrupt judge is more harmful to society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in crowded street.” This is Justice John Inyang Okoro for real.
Nigerians must bear this in mind as Horace rightly put it: “A corrupt judge does not carefully search for the truth.” Justice John Inyang Okoro was not therefore interested in searching for the truth, because searching for the truth would end up denying him his much coveted prize of selling the political destiny of Nigerians including his generations yet unborn for a mess of porridge in the manner of biblical Esau.
The difference between a corrupt judge like Justice John Inyang Okoro and an honest judge like Justice Chukwudifu Oputa of blessed memory is that the corrupt judge has a price for his judgment and the honest judge has his integrity and moral values to protect in his judgment.
The former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi A. Annan, in his foreword to United Nations Convention against Corruption stated: “Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish.”
According to 2022 Transparency International 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index Nigeria ranked 150 out of 180 of most corrupt countries in the world. Felix Adler pointedly says: “Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.” This is Justice John Inyang Okoro in picture.
Sahara Reporters in their issue of October 8, 2016, wrote on the arrest and detention of Justice John Inyang Okoro:
… two Supreme Court justices, John Inyang Okoro and Sylvanus Ngwuta, were arrested in connection with the receipt of bribes from Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. Justice Ngwuta reportedly traveled to Qatar to receive bribes that he shared with Justice Okoro and other justices in order to help Mr. Wike to win a case at the Supreme Court regarding his disputed election. During a search of his home Justice Ngwunta was in possession of N35,208m, $319,475, 25,890 pounds and 280 Euros. The two judges have been linked with massive properties development in Abuja and Calabar. Justice Okoro is said to be building seven houses simultaneously in Calabar with the help of former Governor Godswill Akpabio and his predecessor Udom Emmanuel in Akwa Ibom state. Justice Okoro had N4.35m, $38,833 and 1000 Euros in his possession during his arrest this morning.”
Is it not a sad irony of Nigeria’s political experience that the same man was entrusted with the duty of determining the political destiny of over two hundred million Nigerians? Was it not therefore self-suicidal on the part of the moral integrity of the Nigerian judiciary that such a morally bankrupt and juristically corrupt man should be permitted to remain on the bench of the Supreme Court of Nigeria?
Under a normal politically conscious and morally proactive civilised society with a population willing to frontally decide their collective destiny by fire or force, the like of Justice John Inyang Okoro should have faced a firing squad long time ago, or if he was damn so lucky, either be cooling off in a remote prison with hard labor somewhere in a remote corner of Nigeria, or ignobly retired to the isolated corner of his remote village in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. But this is Nigeria. A snake must beget something snaky.
The position of law in Nigeria today according to the October 26th, 2023 Justice Inyang Okoro-led Supreme Court judgment on the 2023 Presidential election is that certificate forgery is now legalised under Nigerian law. The Supreme Court of Nigeria that was created to uphold and protect justice on behalf of the people in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, now tells Nigerians that anybody with a globally acknowledged and certified forged certificate can become the President of Nigeria.
The question then is whether there is any further need for integrity in leadership of any kind in Nigeria? There is also the other question of whether Nigeria as a nation has any reason to invest in education? In fact, Nigerians should be thinking by now if those people in the Prisons, presently miscalled Correctional Centres, have any legal and moral reasons for remaining there?
However, the truth is that if that man called John Inyang Okoro from a remote and insignificant village in Akwa Ibom State believes, because he sits as a Supreme Court judge, that he has the powers to redefine the destiny of the Nigerian nation and her citizens, he is only sleep-walking. The truth remains, that from the 26th day of October, 2023, Nigerians should count Justice John Inyang Okoro and his descendants yet unborn as the number one enemies of the nation called Nigeria and her people.
Nigerians are called upon to be strongly mindful of the unfettered assertion by the former President of the United States of America Jimmy Carter that:
The law is not the private property of lawyers, nor is justice the exclusive province of judges and juries. In the final analysis, true justice is not a matter of courts and law books, but of a commitment in each of us to liberty and mutual respect.
This is the time the Nigerian masses should rise up from their denigrated political slumber and tell Justice John Inyang Okoro, his leprous minded and corrupted surrogates, paymasters and, his mote of morally disparaged followers that the Supreme Court of Nigeria cannot be the final arbiter of the political destiny of Nigeria and her citizens.
God created the multi-ethnic and multi-religious people of Nigeria who in turn created the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which created the Supreme Court of Nigeria. So there is no way people like Justice John Inyang Okoro would think because they are putting on robes that are morally torn apart by their iniquitous putrefying corruption, their judgment would amount to final judgment on the political destiny of the nation.
All patriotic Nigerian citizens should therefore rise up with one accord devoid of tribal cum ethnic sentiments and religious bigotry and assert with one accord the words of Suzy Kassem:
If we want truth and justice to rule our global village, there must be no hypocrisy. If there is no truth, then there will be no equality. No equality, no justice. No justice, no peace. No peace, no love. No love, only darkness.
Frank Herbert tells us that:
No legal system can maintain justice unless every participant — magisters, prosecutors, Legums, defendants, witnesses, all — risks life itself in whatever dispute comes before the bar. Everything must be risked in the Courtarena [and outside the courtarena]. If any element remains outside the contest and without personal risk, justice inevitably fails.
Justice Inyang Okoro told Nigerians on 26th October, 2023 that with a forged certificate any Nigerian citizen can become the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. With forged certificate any Nigerian can become a Justice of the Supreme Court like him.
Justice Inyang Okoro told Nigerians that with forged certificate one can become the Inspector General of Police. Justice John Inyang Okoro told Nigerians that with forged certificate one can rise to become the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff.
Justice Okoro told Nigerians that the Supreme Court cannot change its previous judgment, which means certificate forgery has become a binding legal precedent, constitutional law and a statute.
Justice Okoro told Nigerians that parents like him should not waste their time and resources training their children in schools for the purpose of sitting for examinations and passing their examinations, since the Supreme Court of Nigeria through him held that certificate forgery is not within the jurisdiction of the Supreme.
Justice Okoro told Nigerians that he has no moral integrity as a Supreme Court Judge. Justice Okoro told Nigerians that he is not ashamed of the international odium and stigma on Nigeria as a nation where corruption and certificate forgery are adorned and celebrated to the extent of having a President with a forged degree certificate from a renowned university in the United States of America.
To be continued.
•Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD
Odogwu of Ibusa, Delta State, is of the
Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Leader, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria
Email: Nwaezeigwe.genocideafrica@gmail.com
Website: https://icac-gen.org
