One of the Judges arrested after a “sting operation” by the Department of State Service (DSS) in October last year, Justice Adeniyi Ademola has voluntarily retired from the Federal High Court bench.
The Judge was said to have transmitted his letter of resignation to the National Judicial Council (NJC) late Wednesday evening after attending to several civil and criminal cases in his court for that day.
Justice Ademola did not state any reason in his letter of resignation dated December 6, 2017, and addressed to the Chairman of the NJC, who also doubles as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
The letter read, “I hereby voluntarily retire from the Bench of the Federal High Court of Nigeria with effect from 6th December 2017.
“This letter supercedes my previous notice of retirement from the Federal High Court of Nigeria dated September 25, 2017”, he stated in the letter.
Justice Ademola, who has a number of judgments, including that of the Boko Haram suspects charged by the Federal Government, has up to March 2018 to stay on the Bench of the Federal High Court.
Recalled that the NJC earlier went before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to challenge an order given by Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 7, restraining it from investigating corruption allegation against Justice Ademola.
In its notice of appeal dated August 14, NJC argued that Justice Tsoho erred in law when he barred it from inviting Justice Ademola to answer to allegations contained in a petition that was lodged against him.
Justice Tsoho had in the said judgement, stopped NJC from investigating Ademola over the petition that was filed by one Hon. Jenkins Duvie Giane Gwede but subsequently withdrawn.
Tsoho maintained that NJC could no longer open investigation into the matter or invite Ademola to prove his innocence to a petition that was voluntarily withdrawn by the petitioner since 2016.
The restraining order followed a suit filed by Justice Ademola against the NJC which had already constituted a three-man panel has been constituted to commence investigation into the said petition.
The Judge had contended that allowing the NJC to go ahead with the investigation when the petition had been withdrawn, would amount to gross abuse of his rights.