Dr Muiz Adeyemi Banire (SAN) has
stepped down as the National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) following an allegation that he bribed a judge with
N500,000.
In a letter to the APC Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,
on Monday, November 7, Banire said he decided to step down on moral
grounds until the investigation into the allegation is concluded.
The senior lawyer also wrote to the Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami (SAN) about his decision to quit his membership of the Electoral Reform Committee.
Banire’s letter is entitled: 'Offer to Step
Aside as National Legal Adviser Pending Conclusion of Investigation of
My Person by the EFCC.'
He copied President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN).
Banire said he read an online publication on October 29 alleging that he offered a federal judge N500,000 bribe.
According to him, he voluntarily reported himself to the EFCC to help clarify the issues.
The letter reads:
"The
allegation, as I have come to understand it, is that a Statement of
Account of one judge of the National Industrial Court, the Honourable
Justice J. T. Agbadu-Fishim, who is the subject of an ongoing EFCC’s
investigation, contained a June 2013 entry of a ‘N500,000.00’ payment
ascribed as being from one ‘Dr. Muiz B’.
"I
did not hesitate in confirming that this probably referred to me
because I remember that about three years ago, I received a text message
from someone I recollected at the time to be an old colleague in my
days as a lecturer at the University of Lagos, an ‘Agbadu-Fishim’ who
was then a Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal
Studies, informing me of the death and funeral programme of his mother.
"The
last contact (of any sort) I had with this person before that text
would have been about 14 years earlier, that is, before I was appointed
Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State at the inception of civil
rule in 1999 (now 17 years ago).
"Indeed,
it was with considerable difficulty that I was able to eventually
recognise his face when I eventually saw him again (after 17 years of my
leaving the University of Lagos) on my attendance at the EFCC on
Thursday the 3rd day of November, 2016.
"When
I received the said message and his information to me of the death and
funeral programme of his mother in which he solicited for financial
assistance in a tone suggesting great distress, I considered it
necessary to assist an old friend in dire need.
"Without any further prompting, he sent his account details to me and I made a cash gift of N500,000.00 to him."
He
said while he personally never appeared before the judge, two cases
worth less than N2million in legal fees were handled by lawyers in his
chambers.
Banire added: "As I have
now come to realise after my interactions with the EFCC, that payment is
being investigated from the angle of whether or not it was to influence
the receiver in the performance of his judicial duties on the Bench of
the National Industrial Court.
"This
is perfectly understandable to me within the general context of the
investigation in which the allegation had arisen, and considering that I
have lately come to also realise that two of my colleagues in chambers
had been involved as defence counsel in two cases before the subject
judge amongst 12 cases in all they have ever done at the Industrial
Court since inception.
"My
review of the two case files which I came to be conscious of after my
interactions with the EFCC shows that one of them was amicably settled
between the parties for a sum less than N1.2m, thereby technically
losing the case, whilst they won the other and that the combined
professional fees (net of taxes) for the two cases was less than N2m.
"While
protesting my innocence, and will therefore do everything within legal
limits to defend myself, I have, from the first instance, become aware
of the allegation, offered my full cooperation to the EFCC and will
continue to cooperate with, and give it all the assistance it may
require of me in the course of its ongoing investigation into the
matter."
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