AONDOAKAA SPEAKS ON BEING BARRED FROM OCCUPYING PUBLIC OFFICE OR CONTESTING ELECTION
Dam Obed,
February 24th, 2022 –
“This is nothing other than people who are afraid of my popularity or reasons best known to them. Or may be they didn’t read the Supreme Court Judgement. But I have given you the copy of the judgement and the paragraph that is relevant to the issue. It reads in part…”indeed the issue of qualification for holding the office of the second respondent or any other public office does not arise.” The second respondent in this case is the office of the Attorney General of the Federation which I held at that time.
“For whatever reason, some people were happy. This was a private dispute between me and somebody. When I left government, they could have accused me of corruption but there was nothing of such despite the hostile manner we parted. I was in Rome, doing a United Nations’ job, then the judgement was in the peak of the crisis, the late Yar’adua crisis.
“In September, somebody filed an action which I did not know. He served it on the Ministry of Justice and by October I was removed from office, I was not aware of the case. Infact, the issue was funny, that in 1996, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa had a law firm called MKA Aondoakaa and Co, represented Utan Brama Community in Akwaibom. I was barely less than 10years at the bar. That I represented the Mbara community in Akwaibom State and when I became Attorney General I paid the money and shared with them. Look at how easy they would have taken me to EFCC. Somebody sued me for that.
“Ministry of Justice went there and filed a defence and lawyers stopped going there. I was not aware and judgement was entered against me. The issue is now in court again because when I came back after this judgement, we went to the current Attorney General to find out what really happened…may be I made a procurement because what I knew was that in 1996 I was practicing in Gboko and I wonder why I could have gone to represent people in Akwaibom. I went to him to ascertain the fact under freedom of information and we got a shocker which is now a matter for the court. The said payment was done in 2006 by Bayo Ojo, former Attorney General. The amount the man accused me to have paid was 450million. What Bayo Ojo actually paid was 350Million as full and final payment. And the man also said I was pursuing an interest of 700million. This was uncontested facts because I had no defence being unaware and the fact that lawyers from Ministry of Justice stopped going to court.
“The same Supreme Court says a judgement obtained by fraud can be set aside. So, under this freedom of information, we went back to court and the matter is in court, so I will not go further. I have served them. Now that he said that I am the one who went to court and I shared the money, and now that it is proven that it was Bayoje, let’s know what will happen. The case is in court and coming up in March.
“In any case, I read the judgement which says it has nothing to do with me holding public office or contesting election. Assuming even without this judgement, they don’t read the Constitution. What does the Constitution say? It says even if you are convicted of offence for breach of code of conduct or public or involving dishonesty, it is only for 10years. Section 122 of the Constitution is very aposite and the code of conduct schedule 15 is very aposite. This judgement was given in June 2010 at the heat of the crisis I engulfed with the Jonathan administration.
“From June 2010 to June 2020, is that not 10years? But they are narrow-minded. Instead of coming to say on the table, this is what I have for Benue people, it is Aondoakaa they want to face. The judgement is there in the Supreme court and I have given a copy to whoever wants to read it.”
