Melaye Denies Allegations of Bribing Tribunal Judge

Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) has denied allegations that he bribed a tribunal judge, Justice Akoh Ikpeme, who was in charge of his election petition case for the 2015 senatorial elections.

A purported audio-tape on the telephone conversation between Melaye and Justice Akoh has been trending on the social media since yesterday morning where the judge allegedly asked the senator to help her ‘daughter’ secure a job with the Cross River Ministry of Health.

Melayeallegedlysaidhehadspoken to the state Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, on the issue.

The judge was also allegedly asking for bribe in dollars.

Akoh was the tribunal judge in the Kogi West senatorial district election petition between Senator Smart Adeyemi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Melaye.

Reacting to the allegations on his twitter handle @dino_melaye, Melaye said the voice in the audio recording was not his.

“They are using voice over to malign me because my case with them comes up in a few days time. (June 5, 2017)” he said.

Melaye in March 2017 filed a N5 billion suit against the online medium, for defamation and libel, following reports by the medium that he did not graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U), Zaria. In the suit filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, Melaye is also seeking N10million as the cost of the legal action.