Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has revealed Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja as the judge he uses for ‘dirty jobs’.

Wike had during the inauguration of the reconstructed 3.4km eastern bypass in Port Harcourt said he was behind the sacking of David Umahi as governor of Ebonyi state.

You carry the vote of another party and join another party. Can you transfer votes? If you are defecting, leave the seat. And this will checkmate most of these political harlots who will never sit in one place, looking for excuses here and there.

You can’t take our property and say we should close our mouths. How can we close our mouths? And say those who are behind it. We are behind it.

If your friends don’t want to tell you, me, I’m involved. So, nobody should threaten us. You are not our friend. You are not a member of our party. Leave what belongs to our party,

Wike had boasted.

Justice Ekwo of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court had on Tuesday removed the governor and his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Umahi left the PDP in November 2020, attributing the action to the “injustice” done to the South-East.

Consequently, the PDP instituted a suit against the governor, his deputy, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In his judgment, Justice Ekwo held that having defected to the APC, both Umahi and his deputy had by dumping the PDP also forfeited the votes that belonged to the party.

He added that going by the outcome of the governorship election, the office of the governor and deputy governor in Ebonyi state

belongs to the plaintiff and no other political party.

However, sources at the Federal High Court in Abuja told SaharaReporters on Saturday night that Justice Ekwo is known as “Wike Judge”.

They added that the judicial officer is so enmeshed with Wike that the governor permanently has lawyers stationed in his court to monitor his cases.

Were you surprised when Governor Umahi criticised Justice Ekwo over the judgment, describing him as a hatchet man? Justice Ekwo is known as ‘Wike Judge’ here.

He is so enmeshed with Wike that Wike permanently has lawyers stationed in his court to monitor his cases.

The Rivers State governor is known as the ‘Golden Boy’ of the judiciary over his ability to bribe judges at all levels. He was known to have awarded the contract of building the Court of Appeal to a sitting judge, President of the Court of Appeal, then, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa.

Back to Justice Ekwo, some of the cases with him are cases Wike is directly or indirectly involved in.

Another source added,

The Ebonyi governor didn’t lie when he said we were in trouble in this country because justice could now be purchased anyhow, the reckless statement of Wike yesterday confirmed that.

He has turned Justice Ekwo to his homeboy. This same judge was used to remove Sowore as AAC (African Action Congress) chair and Malcolm Fabiyi as his deputy. He refused to hear the case on merit. And when he gave the judgement, he refused to make copies available before going on vacation.

When your medium (SaharaReporters) wrote about this unethical behaviour, he hurriedly called off the vacation to make a copy of the judgement available. Ever since then, he has avoided Sowore’s cases assigned to him. He typically returns them to the Chief Judge.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.