Ministerial Nominee Anthony Anwukah Was Convicted By High Court For Corruption

Anthony Anwukah, one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet nominees, was implicated in a scandal involving fraud, racketeering, and illegal allocation of funds in Imo State, SaharaReporters has learned. 

Anthony Anwukah, former Imo State Secretary to Government and Ministerial Nominee for President Buhari

Documents obtained by SR indicate that Mr. Anwukah, a professor and former Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University (IMSU), was in fact found guilty by an Imo State High Court. According to the documents, a 2009 government White Paper concluded that Mr. Anwukah was guilty of “administrative racketeering,” which included contriving to admit more students than the capacity of IMSU and charging the students fees for file jackets and processing, the award of contracts without due process, and the use of special assistants to circumvent the bursary in order to furnish the Vice Chancellor’s residence. 

The White Paper also noted that the then VC purchased a Mercedes-Benz vehicle for himself at a price of N3.8 million, claiming it was a “retirement entitlement.” In addition, the document recommended that Mr. Anwukah be immediately dismissed from his post as Vice Chancellor.   

On January 29, 2013, an Imo State High Court judge upheld the validity of the White Paper, and that Governor Rochas Okorocha had a duty to implement its recommendations. The court judgment, signed by Justice Ngozi Opara, declared Mr. Okorocha’s appointment of Mr. Anwukah “into a position of authority” to be “unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, null and void and of no effect.”

Despite the ruling, the governor retained Mr. Anwukah as Secretary of State for Imo State. 

In a petition dated March 2, 2013, a non-governmental organization, Every Child Educational & Advancement Foundation (ECEAF), urged then Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Benjamin Uwajimogu, to remove Mr. Anwukah from his post on account of the former VC’s criminal conduct. The petitioner disclosed that they had waited patiently to see Governor Okorocha’s administration “obey the court ruling given by a reputable Judge of Imo State High court on the 29th of January 2013 which ordered the sack of all those indicted by the IMSU whitepaper.” 

Contacted by a correspondent of SaharaReporters, Mr. Anwukah claimed he had been “cleared by the court three years ago.” He referenced a letter sent to him from Imo State University, dated December 21, 2011, which stated, “I am pleased to inform you that the Imo State Government has directed that the compulsory retirement placed on you through the Government White Paper on the report of the Visitation Panel be rescinded.” 

But a source in Imo State told SaharaReporters that the letter was simply engineered by Governor Okorocha, noting that the document emerged a few months after the governor won election in 2011. “The letter is not superior to a judicial ruling, and it does not infer that a court cleared Professor Anwukah of wrongdoing during his tenure as Vice Chancellor,” the source said. 

Mr. Anwukah also told SaharaReporters that the accusations against him were either grossly exaggerated or false.

Mr. Anwukah did however provide SaharaReporters with court papers after the existence of the January 2013 Imo State High court order was raised by our correspondent. These court papers, made available to SaharaReporters, are dated February 19th 2013 and show that Justice Ngozi Opara decided to “set aside/annul the entire proceedings leading to the Judgment in default entered by the Honorable Court in the Suit on 29th January, 2013.”

The reason for the decision, as stated by Justice Opara was because “no one challenging the application and more importantly the respondent had notice of the pending application and either decided not to challenge it or refused so to do.” His ruling continued, “The Court cannot wait indefinitely for him while the Judgement sought to be set aside hangs like a sword of damacle [sic] on the neck of the applicants.”

The “indefinite wait,” it should be noted, was only 21 days from the time of the January 29th ruling and the February 19th annulment.

The controversial former VC was only removed as Secretary of State after Governor Okorocha ran for a second term.  

Several members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State told SaharaReporters that they were shocked that Governor Okorocha would recommend Mr. Anwukah to President Buhari as a ministerial nominee. “Does it mean that Imo State doesn’t have men and women of moral integrity and intellectual endowment who are capable of rendering service to the country? 

Why is His Excellency Governor Okorocha bringing shame to the people of the state by sponsoring a man whose record is so tainted?” one of the critics of the nomination said.

Contacted by SaharaReporters, President Buhari’s senior special assistant for media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said the president “will not meddle in the affairs of the National Assembly” or its vetting process. He added, “it is the duty of the National Assembly to vet candidates for ministerial posts.”

Okokobioko!