AHURAKA YUSUF ISAH
AHURAKA YUSUF ISAH is the Senior Special Assistant (Media) to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed. From an insider perspective, he tries to put the invasion of the home of Justice Mary Odili in perspective.
On Friday, October 29, 2021, some security operatives comprising soldiers, officers of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) and policemen, at about 7pm, arrived the Abuja residence of Justice Mary Peter-Odili and her husband, ex-Governor Peter Odili.
The visiting security operatives presented to Odili’s aides and security details, a search warrant issued by an FCT Chief Magistrate to search the house for what they described as “illegal activities’’ suspected of being carried out in the justice’s house.
However, Odili’s security details identified some critical errors in the search warrant which made it inapplicable, and consequently refused them entry into the house.
The Search Warrant neither contained the details and the name of the person carrying out the alleged “illegal activities”, nor, the actual address of Odili’s house. The search warrant mandated the operatives to search the residence of Number 9 Imo Street. Incidentally, there is nothing like Imo Street, rather there is Imo River. Justice Mary Odili’s residence is not Number 9 but Number 7.
However, anger, shock and condemnation trailed the siege laid by the security operatives to Odili’s house, based on the excuse that some ‘’illegal activities’’ were going on there. Besides, moments after the online media broke the news, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) issued statement to dissociate itself from the action. The Ministry of Justice, the Directorate of State Services (DSS) and the police also exonerated their agencies from the raid on Odili’s residence.
This is far different from the raid carried on some judges on the night of Friday October 7, 2016 and the early hours of Saturday October 8, 2016. Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) disclosed shortly after the raid that he authorized the DSS to carry the action in some states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) across the country.
The raid on the homes of the judges and their subsequent arrest by the DSS became imperative, according to Malami, following the refusal of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to act on the petitions sent to it on allegations of corrupt practices by the affected judges.
Malami also said that the decision to arrest and invade residences of the judicial officers was premised on allegations of economic crimes, terrorism and narcotic crimes, adding that he was simply complying with Section 15(5) of the 1999 Constitution, which vests the state with the obligation to deploy all of its powers to abolish corruption.
The AGF made the revelation on November 29, 2016 when he finally appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the invasion of property and arrest of persons for reasons outside the general duties of the DSS.
Residences of eight judges in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Gombe, Kano, Enugu and Sokoto were raided and seven of them, arrested for alleged corruption. Judges whose homes were raided include the late Justice Sylvester Ngwuta and Justice John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court; as well as Justices Adeniyi Ademola, and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja
In Kano, the home of a high court judge, Kabiru Auta, was raided along with another residence in Enugu belonging to the then Chief Judge of the state, A. I. Umezulike. The two judges were earlier recommended for retirement by the NJC.
The residence of a Gombe State judge, Muazu Pindiga, as well as that of his counterpart from Sokoto state, Justice Samia, were also raided during the operation. The raid at the residence of Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, was in search of $2 million allegedly said to be kept in his house.
Malami justified his action before the Reps committee saying that the action of the DSS, including the midnight raid on the homes of the judges, was within the confines of the law, as there was reasonable evidence, adding that the operation could have been conducted at any hour, any moment and without restriction.
He also maintained that investigating matters of economic crime was not the exclusive preserve of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), because he, as the AGF, could also decide which agency to deploy to tackle any matter of corruption. This was in reaction to the EFCC which had argued that the DSS had overreached itself by delving into matters of corruption, insisting that it was the exclusive preserve of the commission and ICPC by virtue of the Acts establishing both agencies.
But Malami said: “The state was in receipt of multiple petitions of corrupt practices by the judicial officers and there was further apprehension that if immediate steps were not taken, the possibility of dissipating existing evidence that were believed to have been kept within their respective domains will eventually be tampered with.
“Arising from the responsibility created and established by Section 15 of the constitution, the state had to act.
“I had no objection that the operation would be carried out at night because I have taken time to go through the administration of Criminal Justice Act and I was convinced that this operation could be conducted at any hour, any moment without restriction.
“To the question of which agency has the responsibility of executing it, my response to that derives from the fact that multiple petitions were written to the Office of the AGF, DSS, EFCC and a lot of other agencies of government, and to my mind, I have a discretion to look, weigh the situation and decide which agency against the background of the petition will act for the purpose of ensuring that the obligation of the provisions of Section 15(5) of the constitution are carried out.”
He added: “I asked EFCC and DSS and another agency to investigate because they were in receipt of several petitions on the same subject and I was informed by the DSS before the search and arrest and I did not object.
“The DSS presented a formal report to me before and after effecting the search and arrest, they informed me that the operation will be done at any hour without restriction.”
The AGF also explained that the raid was carried out because the NJC refused to act on the petitions sent by his office and other agencies, accusing the judges of corruption, revealing further that the NJC said it could only act on petitions that were backed by sworn affidavits.
“I felt there was no reason the petitions could not be looked into on their own merit, he added.
Malami said he also advised the DSS to write the NJC to look into the petitions it (DSS) received against the judges, and got the same response of a demand, for supporting affidavits.
“So we had a situation where there were reasonable grounds for suspicion for commission of corruption and we had a body saddled with the primary administrative responsibility of looking at such things first, but seemed not to be cooperating in that respect.
“Meanwhile, when the issue of commission of corruption practice is established, the executive has the responsibility of investigation without recourse to the judiciary,” Malami said.
Despite the denials by the AGF and security operatives, several stakeholders have pinned down the invasion of Justice Odili’s residence at the door step of the executive. The motive of the invaders as inscribed in the search warrant to the effect that it was to unearth some illegal activities taking place there, may sound illogical, perhaps if they were allowed to carry out the search, they would have found and shown something to justify their operation.
This brought some people to venture to say that the attack may not necessarily be intently targeted at Justice Odili because attackers were allegedly seeking for some money said to have been brought there, for the purpose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convention taking place at the Eagle Square in Abuja the following day. People of this line of argument, were of the view that one of the governors of south-south region must have hidden some money in the house, with which to influence outcome of the PDP convention. Incidentally, this line of argument was unable to fly due to several shortfalls trailing it. The main question is, who recruited the invaders to carry out such odd job?
According to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon Justice Mariam Aloma Mukthar, the judiciary doesn’t have a garrison of army to fight its cause or enforce its orders and decisions. NJC for instance can only recommend disciplinary actions against erring judicial officers for approval and enforcement by the President. It cannot go further to levy charges against the judge for his or her criminal acts; neither could NJC prosecute the persons that bribed the judge for instance, to balkanize the course of justice. The council doesn’t have criminal investigation unit or ‘’Fraud Detective Squad’’ to detect and investigate criminal involvement of any judicial officer. It can only put the judge on trial if there is a petition filed against him or her, again, the trials are based mostly on documentary evidence which is hard to get.
Perhaps, this explains why the Judiciary has been the whipping child amongst the Three Arms of Government in the country. It cannot bark because the ‘’Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers’’ precludes it or gives it limited opportunity to so do. Neither can it bite since it’s stripped of power to keep a standing army to enforce its orders.
Of course, it is the duty of the state to detect, investigate, prosecute and apply appropriate punishment to serve as deterrent for criminal acts in any clime. However, apart from Justice Ademola (rtd), none of the other judges sacked by the NJC, has been prosecuted, all this while, despite the magnitude of the criminality perpetuated by some of them and the public concern.
Worse still, none of those that conspired with any of the judges sacked by the council for compromising the standard of justice, was also prosecuted and punished by the concerned authorities at state and federal level, contrary to what happens in other climes.
It may be easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the real identities of those that invaded Justice Odili’s residence on October 29, 2021 to be revealed because the purpose was political and not judicial. Justice Odili was brought in perhaps because it has become seemingly attractive to revel in “Judges’ Corruption Mantra’’ than even politically-exposed persons.
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