Gladly, I’ll meet you in court, Justice Ademola tells FG

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, against whom a 15 count charge was filed on Monday by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, has reacted, describing the charges as trumped up.

The judge, who spoke through one of the lawyers in his defence team, Mr. Jeph Njikonye, said the charges were bogus and trumped-up, and that Ademola was eager to defend himself in court.

Justice Ademola, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was charged alongside his wife, Olabowale, the Head of Service of Lagos State.

It would be recalled that Justice Ademola’s home raided on the night of 8th of October and subsequently arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, over alleged corrupt practices and professional misconduct.

Six other judges, including two from the Supreme Court were also arrested in the night raid.

Though the judge had, in a letter to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, alleged that he was being victimized by the AGF, Abubakar Malami, and the DSS, the office of the AGF filed the 15 count charges against him and his wife, accusing him of receiving gratification to the tune of N248,101,300 and $520,000 from law firms and others.

Read also: Govs have their way as Senate returns Buhari’s ambassadorial list

But the judge also picked holes in the allegation that the judge received gratification from the law firm of his uncle, GTJ Ademola, saying the prosecutors went so low on that.

According to Njikonye, the federal government was only playing to the gallery with the charges in order to justify the unconstitutional raid of the homes of the judges by the DSS.

He said: “We have taken a preliminary look at the charges and we can confidently say that they are bogus and trumped-up to play to the gallery of the public. It is also an attempt to justify their unconstitutional raid on the houses of the judges in the wee hours of the day.

“Unfortunately, the populace will not have the opportunity to be in court to see how unsubstantiated and how woolly those charges are. There is no iota of substance in the charges.

“All of these are politically-motivated. They are trumped-up to denigrate and tarnish the name of the judge and the name of the Ademola family.

“They also went so low to impute that the judge received gratification from his uncle, who runs the G.T.J. Ademola & Co. We will be eager to get to the bridge and cross it”, Njikonye said.
By Timothy Enietan-Matthews….

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now