Ebonyi State government said Governor Francis Nwifuru has never planned to bribe, either directly or by proxy, any member of the judiciary or its representative to bend the course of justice.
Briefing journalists in Abakaliki, the commissioner for information and state orientation, Engr Jude Okpor, described as mischievous and false the allegation by the president, Association of Ebonyi Indigenes Socio-Cultural in the Diaspora (AEISCID), Ambassador Paschal Oluchukwu that the state government plans to bribe the state election petitions tribunal with the sum of N1 billion.
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He said the state government respects the judiciary and its Lordships. “Our unshakable confidence in the Nigerian judicial system is not in doubt.
“The governor has no reason to panic over the outcome of the cases in the election tribunal since he was overwhelmingly voted into office alongside other candidates of the APC by the good people of Ebonyi State.
“Governor Nwifuru is aware that the tribunal judges are men of integrity and impeccable character who can never stoop so low as to demand or accept any form of financial inducement from anyone or group of people.
“It is unfortunate that politicians who were rejected by the Ebonyi people during the last general elections could hire a man who was not in Ebonyi State during the elections to make libelous statements against the judges of the tribunal and the entire Nigerian judiciary just to score cheap political points.
“It is clear that Paschal considers not Nigeria’s integrity before the international community while struggling to tickle the egos of his paymasters.”
Okpor maintained that the state government is open to criticism adding that making unfounded and baseless allegations against the present and the immediate past governor is not only infantile but misleading and diversionary.
“The governor is aware that some people are still feeling the pains of defeat. It must be stated that he has repeatedly extended olive branches to the aggrieved,” he added.