The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has arrested a retired Appeal Court judge, Justice Mohammed Tsamiya, for allegedly demanding a N200m bribe in exchange for a favourable judgment in a National Assembly election case.

The ICPC said the case was pending before the Imo State Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal.

The agency also commenced probe into the 24,325 government properties that were sold to government officials under the monetisation policy of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

ICPC said in a statement by its spokesperson, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, that many, who bought government properties, had yet to make full payment while some others were secretly renting the properties to private citizens.

The statement read in part, “In recent times, the ICPC has been inundated with petitions from patriotic Nigerians, drawing the attention of the commission to allegations of widespread abuse of the policy by beneficiaries and some government workers.

“The commission, while acting on the petitions, discovered through preliminary investigation that a number of civil servants in the OHCSF, who benefited from the policy had not paid for the houses since 2005. While some had completely defaulted, others owe the government a sizeable amount of the money.

“The investigation further revealed that 32,305 houses were captured by the committee on the sale of government properties while 24,345 were eventually sold to beneficiaries.

“However, civil servants in some government agencies, notably OHSCF and the Federal Housing Authority, have allegedly turned the policy into a shoddy business with the aim of defrauding the Federal Government.”

The commission added that the arrested judge demanded N200m bribe from one Mr. Nnamdi Orji, in exchange for a favourable judgment in a National Assembly election case.

“Justice Tsamiya has since been granted bail by the commission upon the fulfilment of his bail conditions even as investigation continues,” the ICPC added.

Azeez