Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Contrary to a report by People’s Gazzete where it described a former Minister for Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN as corrupt, Nigerian Concord Newspaper’s independent investigation at the Federal Ministry of Justice has revealed that the former chief law officer of the Federation wasn’t part of the said Utan Bran compensation case as well as other major scandals of the Ministry.
According to multiple evidence obtained by this newspaper under the Freedom Of Information Act, Chief Aondoakaa was not part of the law firms that handled the Utan Bran compensation case and the judgement debt was paid by Chief Bayo Ojo, AAN in 2006 as the Federal Attorney General of the Federation under the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sources at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja who spoke to this newspaper this morning stated that Chief Aondoakaa was an Attorney General that respected the Rule of Law to the fullest while he held sway as Minister for Justice.
According to multiple sources, he ensured that court orders were adhered to without any interferences.
They however condemned those who sponsored the newspaper report, noting that accusing Chief Aondoakaa of “representing one of the most notorious examples of rot within the Inner Bar” is political and aimed at tarnishing his good records.
Other sources within the Justice Ministry in Abuja said that the report and its sponsors failed to show one single example of how Chief Aondoakaa abused public office or undermined court judgements while he was the AGF.
They also stated that the newspaper (People’s Gazzete) was being economical with truths when it reported that the former AGF wrote letters to the judiciary and the legislature, urging them to disregard court orders and stall the swearing-in of an election’s rightful winners in the 2007 National Assembly election.
On the issue of being qualified to contest for elections in the country, it is pertinent to note that concurrent judgement of the Supreme Court has the same force as the lead judgement, and Hon Justice Mary Odili (jsc) made it abundantly clear in her current judgement that “the issue of not holding public office does not arise ”
The matter is back in court for judiciary review based on the new evidence that the judgement was obtained by fraud and is still pending in court.
Our findings showed that the administration of Goodluck Jonathan did everything to incriminate Chief Aondoakaa who obviously had a toxic relationship with the former president.
Meanwhile, the new evidence came out from Federal Ministry of Justice during the late president Buhari and it was signed by the Solicitor General and permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice. (Nigerian Concord Newspaper will publish this letter after our full investigation on the matter next week)
It was also revealed that Aondoakaa is not involved in any of the major scandals at the Federal Ministry of Justice like the Halliburton, 245 malabo oil and ABACHA loots.
To show that Aondoakaa wasn’t barred by any court to hold public offices in Nigeria, the former AGF contested the 2023 disputed APC primaries after being cleared by national Secretariat of the party.
Furthermore, the issue of qualification and Disqualification to contest any INEC conducted elections is constitutional, and is a settled law by Supreme Court that the stipulated constitution provisions can not be added or subtracted since 2003 in the case of Attorney General of Abia vs Attorney General of the Federation.