BEVERLY HILLS, November 15, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), has filed a 15-counts charge, with number, FCT/CR/21/2016, against Justice Adeniyi Ademola, of the Federal High Court, and his wife.
In the charge filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Justice Ademola was accused of acting with his wife, Mrs. Olabowale Toluwatope Ademola, who is the Head of Service of Lagos State, of ‘corruptly’ receiving a total sum of N248,101,300 and $520,000 as gratification from law firms and others between 2013 and 2016.
Justice Ademola was accused of receiving gratification from some lawyers, law firms and companies while his wife was alleged to have, in some instances, accepted some money into her account in GT Bank Plc on behalf of her husband.
Mrs. Ademola, in the charge marked: CR/21/16, filed by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, was said to have aided her husband.
Justice Ademola was among the judges, including two Justices of the Supreme Court, Justices Sylvester and Inyang Okoro, who were arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Service between October 7 and 8 on allegations corruption.
The Federal Government had already on November 8, 2016 charged Justice Ngwuta before the Federal High Court, Abuja, on charges of money laundering and passport infraction relating to age falsification and obtaining of multiplicity of passports.
Meanwhile, Justice Ademola, through a lawyer in his defence team, Jeph Njikonye, has declared that the charges against him were bogus and trumped-up adding that he was eager to defend himself in court.
He added that the prosecutors went so “low” to impute that the judge received gratification from his uncle’s law firm, G.T.J Ademola & Co., mentioned in the charges insisting that the Federal Government only filed the charges to justify the ‘unconstitutional’ raid of the houses of the judges arrested by the Department of State Service.
“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,” Njikonye said.
“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.”
“In playing to the sentiment of the public, they disingenuously roped in the wife of the judge. As Head of Service of Lagos State, the wife of the judge does not reside in Abuja.
“She is a woman of sterling character and who does not know anything about the cases her husband presides over.”
Story by Oputah David.
