By Olayinka Ajayi

Former Senate president, Adolphus Wabara has blamed the slow pace of the nation’s  judicial system as the major reason he didn’t continue to represent his constituent in the red chambers.

Adolphus Wabara

Speaking after a high court in Abuja discharged and acquitted him and two other senators, Ibrahim Abdulazeez and John Azuta Mbata of allegations of bribe  leveled against them by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission ,ICPC, Sen. Wabara in an exclusive chat with Vanguard rebuked the foot- dragging process of the judicial system saying:”It was 14 whole years of pain and agony. Our judicial system should frankly be revisited. We are still running a colonial law and colonial procedure in our judiciary. These definitely have to change. Look at more civilized nations    like America and even New Zealand, look at the guy  that  killed some people in New Zealand, within 48 hours, they finished investigation and he was brought to court.

“ You can imagine what this would have done to me if  I had died before this judgment. My family wouldn’t have forgiven me because the stigma would have been there forever.

“What about the moral aspect where you are about getting an appointment and the next thing you hear is that somebody would go and tell Mr. president that you have a corruption case to answer with the anti graft agencies. It happened in Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, some people went to inform him that I had a corruption case against me.

“Or you go to your village in a particular part of   the Eastern  Nigeria to contest an election. They would drag you down and discourage people from  voting for you . That explains why I did not continue in the Senate because of the moral aspect.  It would have been better that I was jailed in my lifetime  so if I died, my children would say he had a case, it was political and he served his term. So, you cannot use that to judge me. Had I died, it would have been a stigma in my family but I thank God I am alive to witness this judgment.”