PDP channelling time, resources to corrupt judiciary, says Rivers lawmaker

Rivers State lawmaker, Chief (Hon) Martyns Mannah, representing Ahoada East constituency 1, in the state House of Assembly has alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state was channelling all resources and time to corrupt the Judiciary, noting that the poor masses of this country are doomed when their last hope for justice is corrupt. Hon Mannah, in an exclusive chat with the Daily Times over the weekend in Port Harcourt, the state capital observed that when corruption engulfs the Judiciary then the whole country is sank into corruption, advising that, “that’s where we all must focus on.” He wondered why the cacophony about the planned arraignment of the Chief Judge of Nigeria (CJN) by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Justice Walter Onnoghen when the man has accepted his fault and commended President Buhari for his courageous war against corruption. “We thank God for the Federal Government to have exposed the CJN because a situation where a man of such status will involve himself in that level of corruption is threatening; if the Judiciary is corrupt, it means that a lot of people who are in jail today are there because somebody paid for corruption. If you can’t sue anybody to court, pay the lawyers, pay the Judges, then they’ll just sentence you to jail,” he said. He expressed the hope that God in His infinite mercies will continue to expose more corruptions in the Judiciary: “It’s a pity that our Judiciary is aligning itself to a party. At the end of the day, what they don’t know is that they will be exposed. As God, in His infinite mercies divined the ways to expose the CJN, we know that many more will follow suit.” Hon Mannah, who defected from the ruling PDP to the opposition APC in the state blamed PDP for the rot in the Judiciary, alleging that the party was now channelling its time and resources to corrupt the last hope of the common man. “You see, corruption is the order of the day in Nigeria and the last line of defense for the common man is where the PDP have now invested all their time to get it corrupt. The PDP administration has so corrupted the country; every nock and cranny of this country; every sector, security agencies, the INEC. They’ve spread corruption everywhere and the only line of defense for the common man, which is the Judiciary, they’ve now channelled all their resources to get it corrupt,” he alleged. The House Committee chairman on Youth and Employment had no kind words for the state House of Assembly which he described as more of a rubber stamp, often dancing to the tune of the executives. “We sit only when the Governor says so and the eighth Assembly has only been passing executive bills,” he charged. The vocal opposition lawmaker further alleged that the opposition lawmakers in the Assembly were receiving lesser salaries than their PDP counterparts, saying that, “there is always a difference of one million Naira between our salaries. During the last Xmas, all PDP lawmakers were given an Xmas bonus of ten million Naira each by the state governor while the APC members were left out.” Explaining why he defected from the PDP to APC, he told our correspondent that he jumped ship when it became obvious that Gov Wike was only interested in developing his Ikwerre ethnic group, adding that his defection has attracted many dividends of democracy to his constituency because the governor, in his bid to redress some of his criticisms began to execute some projects in his area. “My people were invited to Government House twice in a month,” he said. Memoye Oghu, Port Harcourt