Text of a Press Briefing by Chief (Dr.) Bernard Atonbere Aprioku-Okome and Prof. Innocent Miebaka Aprioku for the Aprioku Family of Okrika, Rivers State on Wednesday, January 29, 2025.
This Press Briefing by the Aprioku Family is convened to draw the attention of the general public and, in particular, Rivers people who are concerned about the embarrassing vituperations and vain insinuations impinging on the personal integrity of eminent sons of our family in the service of Rivers State by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, in his media chat held on Sunday, January 19, 2025.
We have been inundated with calls and personal visits by friends, relations and members of the public who are gravely disturbed by Mr. Nyesom Wike’s utterances during the media chat, concerning the allegations made against the Honourable Justice Sika Henry Aprioku of the High Court of Rivers State and Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku who rose to the rank of Director, Development Control and Enforcement in the Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning.
In the aforesaid media chat, Mr. Nyesom Wike uttered the following about our two brothers: “Look at another one. A matter the Court of Appeal gave that three people cannot sit to make law, appropriation budget, a State High Court recently by Justice Aprioku say ‘No, three people can pass a Budget, make laws for the State’. When the matter is on appeal to the Supreme Court, Justice Aprioku of the State High Court. Why did he do so? A building collapsed when I was Governor. His brother was the man in charge. Somebody died and I said he should be dismissed. Yes. Now for him Wike dismissed his brother who was a civil servant. Therefore, anything that comes Wike is involved I will do this. How can a Judge of the State High Court when a Court of Appeal has given judgment which they have appealed to the Supreme Court now sit down to say that the State Governor can deal with three people?”
Our understanding of the words uttered by Mr. Nyesom Wike is that the Honourable Justice Sika Henry Aprioku’s judgment in Suit No.: PHC/3552/CS/2024, The Registered Trustees of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners v. Government of Rivers State & 2 Ors was a decision, informed by bias and that Justice Aprioku was on a vendetta mission because Mr. Nyesom Wike dismissed his younger brother from the civil service. It is important to state that Mr. Nyesom Wike was neither a party nor a privy to the parties in that suit. Secondly, since he was not a member of the Assembly of Rivers State, the outcome of the decision cannot be binding on him. We are surprised that the Minister, an acclaimed life bencher, ought to have been circumspect because it is unethical to denigrate a judge before the public media without first reading and digesting the facts and the reason for the decision. Mr. Nyesom Wike should not easily forget that he ruled Rivers State with the Rt. Hon. Dabotorudima Adams led Six (6) Assembly members between December, 2015 and March, 2017, when 26 seats were vacant.
It will be pertinent to point out, that our younger brother, the Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku, who was the foremost Developmental Control Officer in the Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning, was never derelict in the discharge of his duties. From the White Paper Report on the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, he appeared before the Civil Service Commission Panel, where he was completely exonerated and apologized to for the wrongful suspension. He was never dismissed in the Rivers State Civil Service and when the Wike Government refused to recall him from suspension but was plotting to dismiss him through the office of the then Head of Service, he proceeded to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and filed a suit with Suit No.: NICN/PHC/29/2020 between TPL Dr. Minakuro Aprioku v. Civil Service Commission & 2 Ors to restrain the Government from executing the unwarranted dismissal plot and subsequently recall him from suspension.
It is instructive to note that the State Government failed to file a defence at the National Industrial Court for over four years. Finally, the Government of Rivers State, under the then Attorney General of the State, Prof. Zacheus Adango, SAN; instructed the Senior Special Counsel C.N Ekeh Esq; to seek leave of Court to settle the case out of Court, wherein our younger brother was not only reinstated from suspension but was paid all the arrears of his outstanding salaries and allowances. However, while the case was pending and before final settlement with the State Government was reached, he attained the statutory retirement age and was duly retired. He has, in fact, been enlisted in his pension awaiting payment of his gratuity as a Retiree in the Rivers State Civil Service. We used this opportunity to thank, Governor Sim Fubara, a man full of compassion and the present Head of Service, Mr. George Nweke for standing on the side of truth.
We therefore state that at no time did Mr. Nyesom Wike’s government succeeded in carrying out the plot of dismissal of our younger brother, Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku. For the avoidance of doubt, Dr. Minakuro Aprioku is an accomplished professional as a Town Planner who discharged his responsibilities with due diligence and rose through the ranks to the position of Director of the Development Control Department in the Rivers State Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning beginning with his appointment thereto in Acting capacity in 2009. With regards to Wike’s allusion that it was his sacking of Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku that is infuriated Justice Sika Henry Aprioku to deliver judgments against his interest, we make bold to state that Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku at all material times exercised his duty of care with professionalism in the execution of his official schedule and in accordance with the provisions of the Rivers State Physical Planning and Development Law, No. 6 of 2003. The Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku is not a civil engineer to recommend approval on the structure of the building. His duties stop at setting out the area/space the building ought to erected as to avoid the use of public utility space. Therefore, the judicial panel with all due respect, was in error or by mischief indicted him when the building engineers and the architects were not confronted with the facts of approval.
In the Report of the Civil Service Commission’s Committee on the Discipline of the Civil Servants Indicted by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the collapsed Seven-storey Building under construction at 119 Woji Road (Plot 80), GRA Phase II, Port Harcourt, the Committee found that the Justice Adolphus Enebeli Judicial Commission of Inquiry Report that indicted our younger brother, Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku, and Mr. Obinna Edmund, Director, Building Plan Approval, on the collapsed Seven-storey structure was not supported by evidence, since he is not a structural engineer to either recommend or approve building plans and development of structures. Our younger brother and Mr. Obinna were exonerated by the Chief Sir Mike Elechi led Civil Service Panel.
Gentlemen of the Press, we respectfully refer you to Pages 8 to 11 of the Eze (Sir) Mike Elechi Committee Report and urge you to note specifically that the Committee exonerated Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku of any wrong-doing with respect to the collapsed building. Most importantly, the Eze (Sir) Mike Elechi Committee did not find any dereliction of duty in Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku. That his Department’s functions and responsibilities, under Sections 70 – 74 of the State Physical Planning and Development Law, No. 6 of 2003; that his duty schedule does not include the inspection of buildings for structural integrity but to ensure that there was no encroachment on any Public Utility Lane; and that he complied with the requirements of his schedule to the letter between April 2014, when he first arrived at the site on routine inspection at GRA Phase II, prior to the approval of the building plan to September 2018, when the Honourable Commissioner delineated areas for monitoring and supervision into 15 zones, with each of the five Directors in charge of three zones and deployed him to take charge of the Choba-Obiri Ikwerre axis. Therefore, at the time the building collapsed in 2018, he was not the development officer overseeing projects at GRA phase II.
We will for sake of emphasis draw your esteemed attention to Paragraph 13 on Findings of the Eze (Sir) Mike Elechi Committee Report at page 21 thereof where it is stated that: “There is no evidence of professional incompetence in the conduct of the two indicted Directors (Mr. Obinna and Dr. Aprioku) as they did not play any direct or indirect role in the processes that could have resulted in the collapse of the building”. THEREFORE, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry Report which Mr. Nyesom Wike purportedly relied on to direct the then Head of Service to dismiss our younger brother, Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku, was not supported by facts upon which the Eze (Sir) Mike Elechi Committee could have acted the Wike script and recommend him for disciplinary action. On the contrary, the Mike Elechi Civil Service Commission Committee exonerated Venerable (TPL Dr.) Minakuro Aprioku from the so-called indictment by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and subsequently acquitted him having found him not guilty.
It is also instructive to note that the review Committee noted in Paragraphs 21 and 22 that Dr. Minakuro Aprioku was not responsible for any dereliction of his duties save not submitting a report. Please recall that the Director of Development Control had submitted that there was nothing to report in the course of his schedule. He could not have contrived a report just to satisfy the reporting responsibility placed on his office when what was before him was void activity. Consequently, we invite you to note Paragraph 27 of the Committee Report as follows: “The Committee finds it difficult to recommend any form of disciplinary action against the two officers indicted by the Judicial Committee of Inquiry into the collapsed building under reference as the reasons for which they were queried and recommended for disciplinary action were not supported by any evidence, verifiable without substantial doubt. Most of the identified short comings are systemic in nature; and in the face of the evidence available to this committee, it will not serve the interest of justice to single out these two officers, and subject them to any form of disciplinary action in the prevailing circumstances, based exclusively on the allegations leveled against them in their respective queries.”
From the foregoing, let the whole world know that our younger brother, Venerable Minakuro Aprioku, was never indicted nor dismissed over the collapsed Seven-storey building at GRA Phase II, from the Rivers State Civil Service but was retired upon the attainment of Sixty years. Therefore, the people of Rivers State and the entire world should ignore Mr. Nyesom Wike and consider him as a pathological liar on this issue and ponder whether he is fit for public office.
Mr. Nyesom Wike, an acclaimed Life Bencher, called to the bar in 1998 from our findings was never in active legal practice for at least One (1) full year before he became a Local Government Chairman. Mr. Nyesom Wike ought to have restrained himself during the media chat when he made allusions on the person of the Honourable Justice Sika Henry Aprioku as a Judge who delivers judgments based on bias, sentiments and indiscriminate vendetta against anyone he considers an opponent. Even Mr. Nyesom Wike’s wife, a humble and respectful Judge, formerly of the Rivers State Bench, now in the Court of Appeal, can attest and vouch for the integrity of our younger brother in the person of Hon. Justice Sika Henry Aprioku. We have since after the interview by Mr. Nyesom Wike, personally gone to the Court premises to interview Lawyers and Judicial Staff. Our findings established that our younger brother, the Honourable Justice Sika Henry Aprioku, is hardworking and a Judge of unimpeachable integrity, impeccable character and unquestionable courage whose pedigree on the Bench in the last twenty years since he took the judicial Oath in January 2005 is established on a sound foundation of 19 years legal practice. Taking from the date of his Call to the Nigerian Bar in 1986, our younger brother, Justice Aprioku, had 14 years of active law practice and experience beneath his belt before Mr. Nyesom Wike and his wife were Called in 1998. It will be pertinent to state from our findings that, as a Bencher, Wike ought to have restrained himself from commenting on a judgment that is on appeal on National Television. However, his conduct is not strange because he is inclined to always play to the gallery, Mr. Nyesom Wike, wherein he misrepresented the facts and the reasons behind the judgment which in fact he has not read to appreciate the reasoning of the Judge.
Firstly, from Newspaper reports and reading through the judgment in the case of The Registered Trustees of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners v. Government of Rivers State & 2 Ors, Justice S. H. Aprioku, relied on the Supreme Court pronouncement in the case of Dapianlong vs Dariye & Anr (2007) LPELR-928, where the Supreme Court per Onnoghen JSC (later CJN) held that: On the 25/7/2006, 13 Members of the House left PDP and joined the Advanced Congress Democrat (ACD). The Speaker of House of Assembly followed on the 26/7/2006. By the operation of Section 109 (1)(g) of the Constitution, they were deemed to have and actually vacated their seats in the House of Assembly leaving its membership to 10. It was 8 out of 10 that impeached the 1st Respondent.” The Supreme Court went further to pronounce that “the 14 Members of the Plateau State House of Assembly that defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and joined the Action Congress of Democracy (ACD) by operation of Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, were deemed to vacate and actually vacated their seats in the House of Assembly and that the remaining Ten(10) Members of the House of Assembly can transact business, except in matter of impeachment, for which 2/3 of the 24 members must be present.”
Mr. Wike should not complain for between the year 2015 and March 2017 he Mr. Wike, transacted business with the Rt. Hon. Adams Dabotorudima led Assembly comprising of six (6) members which is less than 24 members that ought to pass executive bills and budgets. What the Judge said is that following the Supreme Court pronouncement of Däpianlong vs Dariye case, Mr. Nyesom Wike used Six (6) members out of the 32 members House to present the Rivers State Budget on 28/12/2016 and signed the Appropriation Bill as the 2017 Golden Jubilee year Budget. The question the Judge asked is: If Mr. Nyesom Wike can use Six (6) members of the House of Assembly, what stops Sim Fubara from using the Four (4) members of the 32-man House since it is less than the 24 of the 32-man House? We appeal to Nyesom Wike to stop using Media Chat to blackmail and intimate Judges in cases where he is neither an adverse party affected by the outcome of the judgment nor beneficiary of the judgment. We urge on the public to read through the judgment and reach their own informed conclusions.
We state here and now that we have a noble legacy to protect and high standards of morality and good conscience in public service to live by from our fathers. This noble legacy is a creed too dear to us to give anyone the opportunity to associate us with incompetence or actions guided by prejudice. For the records and out of abundance of caution, the men Wike sought to drag downhill to the refuse bin of sullied reputation are the grandchildren of Isaiah Atonbere Aprikalaoku, one of the first Okrika sons to enroll at Government School, Bonny in the 1890s. We are sons of the renown Teacher, Henry Iwokiri Isaiah Aprioku, “the great Headmaster”. Our late father who is a widely traveled Educationist from the time he made the record of being the only student in the entire Niger Delta region to pass his Cambridge Standard Six with Distinction in 1929 to teaching generations of accomplished academics and professional giants in institutions like Kalabari National College, Buguma; Dennis Memorial Grammar School, and New Betal Onitsha; Okrika Grammar School, Okrika, UNA State School, Ogoloma etc left us a legacy of very sound character. As the Holy writ states, the good name bequeathed to us by our fathers is worth more than Gold and Silver. The Aprioku Family will therefore neither compromise our values nor let anyone rubbish our reputation for political or other reasons.
So we ask the question: What educational legacy was bequeathed to Mr. Nyesom Wike by his fathers? Without blowing our trumpet, our family is one of the most educated in Okrika and the entire Rivers State with professionals in diverse fields serving in Nigeria and in several European countries. In all these, our greatest worry is on the security of the lives of our younger brothers, particularly the Honourable Justice Sika H. Aprioku who has remained diligent in the discharge of his duties on the Bench of the High Court of Rivers State in the past 20 years.
Therefore, it is the height of insolence and demagoguery characteristic of poor upbringing for Nyesom Wike to attribute the judgment delivered by Justice Sika Henry Aprioku on the 20th of December 2024 to an imaginary bitterness that arose from the untoward victimization of his younger brother, TPL Dr. Minakuro Aprioku. Let Nyesom Wike take heed and stop his predisposition to ridicule the Judiciary and others who are blessed with the right discipline, pedigree and social character.
We thank you all for your patience.
29-01-2025
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Chief (Dr.) Bernard Atonbere Aprioku-Okome
For the Aprioku Family
29-01-2025
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Prof. Innocent Miebaka Aprioku
For the Aprioku Family
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