DSS Raid: Issues As Arrested Judges Fight Back

Following the arrest, detention and release of two Justices of the Supreme Court and five other Judges by the Department of State Services (DSS) on the allegation of corruption, the affected Jurists have written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria who doubles as the chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC), explaining why the DSS is after them, reports SUNDAY EJIKE.

The principle of fair hearing, which members of the Bar and the Bench speak glowingly about in courtroom, appears to have been applied in the case involving the seven judges arrested and later released by operatives of the Depart of State Service (DSS). The judges are not taking the allegations of graft, bribery and sundry others leveled against them sitting down. One after the other, they have been conveying their reactions to the allegations and arrest in letters to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC).

Two days after an emergency meeting, the position of NJC was made known through a press statement issued by the Acting Director of Information of the Council, Soji Oye, which berated the DSS, describing its action as an attempt to ridicule, harass and intimidate judges.

To prove his innocence, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, pointed the finger at the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as being behind the whole saga. He stated that he was being persecuted for granting bail to former National Security Adviser (NSA), Mohammed Sambo Dasuki, as well as the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who are currently being held by the DSS on charges of corruption and treason respectively. Ademola disclosed a long standing friction between himself and Malami, which he believes was also reason for the alleged persecution.

In a letter to the CJN, he said, “The search of my residence was based on the petition of Honourable Jenkins Duvie dated 4th of April 2016 to the NJC, granting bail to Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd) and the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, using my office to secure my wife’s appointment as the Head of Civil Service, Lagos State through Senator Bola Tinubu.”

“What is more intriguing in this whole episode is that I see it as a vendetta/revenge from the AGF. Whilst I was in Kano between 2004 and 2008 as a Federal High Court judge, he was involved in a professional misconduct necessitating his arrest and detention by my order. However, with the intervention of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Kano Branch, the allegation of misconduct was later withdrawn by me.