NBA Presidency Aspirant, Paul Usoro (SAN), In Bribery Scandal.

The statement that was alleged to have been made by Prof. Chidi Odinkalu is quoted as:

“It is an insult to us all. We all have a duty to stop it (Usoro’s bid)… In a sane country, Paul Usoro should be facing disciplinary proceedings at best and should have been disbarred.” After he said that Usoro had admitted to bribing a judge with the sum of N450,000.

But through Munirudeen Liadi who is a partner in Mr. Usoro’s firm, he opened up about the ‘gift’ to clear his name. He said that he and the Judge in question,  Justice James Agbadu-Fishim, had been friends for a long time and that the gift had been given five months before his firm got the case and were requested as assistance by the judge.

“These were requests based on longstanding friendship between Mr. Usoro and His Lordship and this fact is borne out by the text messages (which were analysed by EFCC) sent by His Lordship to Mr. Usoro requesting for assistance.  None of these messages remotely mentioned PH/150 (the case code).” Laidi said.

Also, it was revealed that the total amount of the gift was N450,000 while the client had agreed to pay N700,000 which he noted had not even been paid but pointed out that it would be ridiculous to use 65% of the pay as bribe.

Laidi went on to say:

He ended by saying it is unfair for Paul Usoro to be the target of negative comments because he was trying to be a good friend to a fellow lawyer in a time of need.