Patience Jonathan
Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, has been identified as the one of the key persons involved in the conspiracy that led to the removal of the former Acting Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Uriah Angulu, on Tuesday, March 22, by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the appointment of the new Acting Chairman, Dr. Rosemary Abang-Wushishi.
This revelation is coming on the heels of the denial by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Muhammed Bello Adokie, of the Saharareporters’ expose of the scandal behind the hurried sack of Uriah Angulu.
Naija News Desk was reliably informed by a source inside the presidential villa, Abuja, that Mrs. Jonathan was however acting on the promptings of the newly appointed Acting Chairman of the ICPC, Dr. Rosemary Abang-Wushishi, a member of the board of the Commission. Abang-Wushishi, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) and formerly a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), under which she tried unsuccessfully to get a senatorial ticket in Cross Rivers State in 2003, is said to have persuaded Jonathan’s wife to speak to her husband and the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Bello Adokie, to appoint her in place of Angulu.
Our sources at the villa indicated that even though Mrs. Jonathan was at first unaware of the plot by the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and AGF Adokie to persuade the former acting Chairman of the ICPC to drop the investigations of the N6 billion fraud at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in which the CJN was implicated, Abang-Wushishi brought it Mrs. Jonathan’s notice and convinced her to step in to push for the appointment of “a woman” - and one who had been a member of the PDP - in place of Angulu.
Mrs. Jonathan, who is described by a source in the villa as “a meddlesome, even if semi-literate, power-grabbing woman,” was said to have jumped into the fray immediately to support Abang-Wushishi, “who is not only a woman”, as our source puts it, “but is also one from the Niger Delta” like the First Family. Mrs. Jonathan reportedly persuaded her husband and AGF Adokie that Abang-Wushishi can be “trusted” with the “sensitive” position at the ICPC “in this critical period.”
Naija News Desk learnt that, unknown to many, since the decision to appoint her as the acting Chairman of the ICPC, Abang-Wushishi has since convinced Mrs. Jonathan to ensure that after the expected “victory” of her husband at the polls in April, she should be appointed at the substantive Chairman of the ICPC. This move, if successful, will put spanners in the works of those rooting for the retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Pius Olayiwola Aderemi, whose nomination had earlier been rejected by the Senate as they claimed he was "too old". A secret pact was reached recently between the presidency and the leadership of the Senate for the re-presentation of Justice Aderemi’s appointment, which is expected to be approved by the Senate.
However, Abang-Wushishi has persuaded Patience Jonathan that she is “eminently qualified” to head the ICPC, since, as she claimed, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, was her “junior in the police force.”
Our sources at the ICPC hinted that Adokie might have agreed “in principle” to this arrangement, since he and CJN Katsina-Alu are not sure of what would be the attitude of Justice Aderemi to the scandal involving the CJN and other matters of investigation and prosecution before the commission, those in which Adokie and “his handlers” are interested.
Abang-Wushishi, who sought to represent the Central Senatorial District in Cross Rivers State for the PDP in 2003, had accused the then Governor Donald Duke and other leaders of the party of “manipulating” the PDP primaries in declaring Senator Victor Edoma-Egba as the unopposed candidate of the PDP in late December 2002. The woman who is now herself a tool of a clique at the villa and the Justice Ministry, had accused Governor Duke and others of constituting a “a negative clique” in the PDP. “What audacity do they have to do that?” she queried in late December 2002.
The retired police officer and her “godmother”, Mrs. Jonathan, and the AGF, who helped them to realize Wushishi’s ambition, are now facing a similar question from Nigerians regarding the controversial removal of the former acting Chairman of the ICPC, Dr. Angulu.
However, in a statement issued on his behalf by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Ambrose Momoh, in Abuja, AGF Adokie stated that, “For [the] avoidance of doubt, AIG Abang Rosemary Wushishi’s appointment was made in compliance with the provision of section 3(4) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Act, CAP. C31, LFN 2004, which states that the chairman shall be a person who has held or is qualified to hold office as a judge of a Superior Court of record in Nigeria.”
Added Adokie, “Since this requirement also applies to appointments made in an acting capacity, it was necessary to guide against any likely challenges of the powers exercised by Dr Uriah Angulu who did not possess the requisite qualification.”
Critics have described Adokie’s statement as “a puerile and futile attempt” to further cover up the scandals that his office has been trying to cover up. One highly placed source in Abuja told Saharareporters that the AGF’s “peculiar logic” in the statement shows a failed attempt at what experts in the art of falsehood and deception calls ‘the concealment of the very process of concealment.’
“The question,” asks another source, “that Adokie should answer are these: Why did it take the chief legal counsel to the president and the only minister whose office is a statutory one, that is, one sanctioned and authorized specifically by the Constitution, more than three months to recognize that Angulu did not meet the primary criterion for his appointment as the acting chairman of the ICPC? Even a youth corps member who studied law in Adokie’s office would have ‘discovered’ this before Angulu’s appointment was announced; that is, if indeed that was the reason for the sudden sack of Dr. Angulu. Two, and this is what really shows the duplicity of the AGF and the fraudulence of the Jonathan administration when it announced that it was committed to the anti-corruption war and the rule of law: Does Abang-Wushishi meet the criterion that Adokie just brought to our notice in the ICPC Act? If so, that is, if she is qualified to hold office as a judge of a Suprerior Court of record in Nigeria, why didn’t Adokie recommend her to the president last November when Justice Ayoola’s term came to an end? She was there then as a member of the Commission’s board, wasn’t she?”
In further defense of his controversial actions in recent times, AGF Adokie, in his press release, stated his “personal commitment” “to the war against corruption”. Adokie added that he “will, therefore, not be deterred by baseless allegations and insinuations designed to achieve pre-conceived ends.”
While making this baseless claim of his commitment the rule of law, justice and transparency, Saharareporters can authoritatively reveal that not only has Adokie vowed to end the prosecution of the Health Minister, he has also “briefed” the new Acting Chairman of the ICPC to discontinue the investigations into the N6 billion fraud at the NJI in which the Chief Justice of the Federation is implicated. If Wushishi complies, Adokie has promised that she may be able to retain her position, as substantive chairman of the ICPC after President Jonathan “must have won the April elections.”
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