In spite of recent allegations linking some serving ministers with acts of bribery and corruption, indications have emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari might not yield to the demand in some quarters that these ministers be relieved of their appointments.
In the wake of the clamp down on the judiciary, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court had accused the Minister of Transport, Mr. Chibuike Anaechi, of seeking to influence him in an election matter pending before him in 2013.
Ngwuta also alleged that a former Governor of Abia State and now Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, also attempted to bribe him in order to influence judicial outcome in the 2015 governorship election dispute in Ebonyi State.
Similarly, Justice Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court also accused Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress ( APC) of attempting to bribe him to influence judicial decision in the 2015 governorship elections in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states.
Based on these allegations, some Nigerians have been demanding the resignation of these judges while others have clamoured that both the judges and the serving ministers must step aside to pave way for thorough investigations into the matter.
There were speculations that the Presidency had been considering asking Amaechi and Onu to step aside so as not to taint the anti- corruption posture of the Buhari administration.
However, a source in the Presidency confided in Saturday Telegraph that much as President Muhamnadu Buhari would want to protect his personal integrity by dealing with corrupt persons within his cabinet, he does not subscribe to sacking people on mere allegations.
According to our source, the federal government was not about to sack the “indicted” ministers yet because doing so will be succumbing to the mob mentality. “If every person who is accused of corruption through an allegation is suspended, sacked or dismissed from government, we will not have a President in office today.
I am sure that if you open your newspaper today, there must be one person naming an allegation against the President, the Senate President or the Speaker of the House. You know that kind of a thing; that’s the culture we have in this country.
So, logically, it doesn’t follow that way. “Now let us look at the allegation made by the judges against some of these ministers whom they claimed wanted to compromise them.
Why didn’t they call the police and arrest them at that time? Why did they have to keep it up till now? It doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t they report if there was any incident of that nature?
“They are bringing it out now because they have to defend themselves. What were they doing with all that huge amount if dollars in their houses? Now that the thing has been exposed, you now open your mouth to say another person offered mr bribe before. Why didn’t they say so earlier.”
