Amaechi would have been arrested if I were a judge – Segun Oni

The Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Segun Oni, has said if he were a Supreme Court judge, the minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi, would have been arrested if indeed he attempted to influence court judgments.

Speaking to newsmen, Oni said the allegations by the judges against Amaechi would not be taken seriously because of late timing.

Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro, both justices of the supreme court, had accused Amaechi of attempting to bribe them.

“I am not in the position to defend Amaechi, but I feel very sad. I am very sad that a justice of the Supreme Court could come up much later to say somebody attempted to bribe him,” he said.

“If I am a justice of the supreme court, that person would not spend another week before he is arrested. So, because it is a crime, if you see somebody committing crime and you keep quiet and now you are talking about it, do you want people to take you seriously?

“It’s like somebody saying I saw somebody committing rape last year and I didn’t do anything about it. I don’t think that sounds wise. I am not exonerating anybody and there can be investigation”, he added.

He dismissed the statement of Timi Frank, deputy national publicity secretary of the APC, who said the party may cease to exist by 2019.

Oni said APC was the “strongest base that any political system has in Nigeria today”.

“I don’t see that as a reasonable thing to say. I am sorry, whoever said that, I don’t see it as a reasonable thing to say,” he said.

“If anybody says it would not last till 2019, I would say that is wishful thinking, and it is not one of the most reasonable things to say.

“We can have problems, we will face our problems as its comes, we are not saying that there won’t be turbulent times. If there are turbulent times, we go through it. Turbulent times are normal.

“Even the PDP in its own period had turbulent times and it went through it, but to say that the APC may not exist till 2019, we are already in 2016, you shouldn’t take such a person seriously.”